I’m excited about a series of portraits that I have begun shooting in the Schaerbeek area of Brussels. I’ve been inviting local residents for short mini-sessions in my pop-up studio, so this probably doesn’t qualify as ‘pure’ street photography. But it’s just as interesting and satisfying as my studio portrait work.

Community project

My wife and I will be moving to Schaerbeek early next year, and when I was invited to participate in the community initiative Pogge se parle, I jumped at the opportunity as a way to start getting to know the local community myself.

Over four weekends in August and September, the team is organising free activities for children and adults on the Place de Houffalize. When I’m available, I’m spending the afternoon there with a camera and a portable flash unit to make portraits.

Exhibition

We hope to mount an exhibition later in the year, so it’s been important to gather signed model release forms for each of the subjects, and luckily I’ve been supported by someone who has taken care of the administration while I was working with the model.

Completely spontaneously, people have been keen to take part. I’ve really enjoyed chatting with my subjects, who will soon be my neighbours. I have sent each of them the digital image file as soon as it’s been edited, and if the portrait is exhibited they will also receive the exhibition print.

Photographer at work

I’ve also done family and group shots when people asked for this. Below left you can see me at work and, on the right, the image I was making.