Spell: Karel Fonteyne

The Belgian photographer Karel Fonteyne (°1950) is a prominent photographer in Belgium’s history of photography. Due to the significant age gap with his brother and sister, he was often alone in childhood and spent a lot of time in nature. He deepened his great innate sensitivity for the world that surrounded him, with its specific vibrations and its immaterial, intangible dimensions. Today, he is fascinated by everything that is inexplicable, mysterious and elusive. That characteristic of his personality is the basic theme of his entire oeuvre. After his artistic studies, Karel Fonteyne started a career as an art photographer. Exhibitions in the Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels and in the Royal Palace on the Meir in Antwerp gave him immediate recognition. In 1980 he moved to Italy where he was immediately launched into a career as a fashion photographer that would last 17 years and took him all over the world. Particularly in Vogue, he took fashion out of its conformist context to place it in a new universe, using both the most imaginative imagination and the most dramatically realistic rhetoric, always with a touch of humour. He also worked with Martin Margiela, Dirk Bikkembergs, Walter Van Beirendonck, Marina Yee and Dirk Van Saene. Karel Fonteyne starts from an intuitive feeling that he allows to mature and evolve. His work is difficult to place in traditional categories. Each image is actually a stage, a story. Karel Fonteyne uses photography like a writer uses his words to create a unique world every time. That world confuses us, because it is situated between the impossible and reality.