AK: Please introduce yourself—what is your name, where are you from, what do you do?
SM: My name is Séverin I come from France but I live in Brussels, Belgium since fifteen years now. I studied architecture in La Cambre and since five years I am a Brussels based freelance photographer.
AK: What is your relationship with photography, and how did you get into it?
AM: My relationship with photography is very dependent of architecture. I came to brussels for studying architecture in La Cambre. And concomitantly, I discovered analog photography as a medium for architectural representation. I was fascinated by the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher. As much by the subject as of the photographic technique. It deeply influenced me.
Also, there are many similarities between architecture and photography. Like the work of composition, framing, light, context, materials,... Both practices feed on each other.
AK: What do you think triggers you to photograph in a certain moment? Is it planned or solely driven by intuition?
SM: I spend a lot of time cycling in the city. And randomly on my trips I spot places with my phone. I come back later when the light is good to take the photographs. So, it's a planned intuition..
AK: What is the story you want your pictures to tell?
SM: It's something between architecture, city and territory. It always has to be actually made by men and women. With my picutres i want to connect, to confront, to put emphasis on, to laugh on human actions made in his environment. It's about forms, materials, textures, patterns, colors.
AK: Which city would you like to visit the most, and why?
SM: I don't want to visit one city particularly but cities in general. All cities are the same but different. The same: because they are all subjects of land and population pressures. Different: because each city has his personal way to answer to those pressures. It is this answer I like to identify and photograph.
AK: What is your personal relationship to cities, and how do you perceive them as places in general?
SM: What fascinates me with cities is the way they are built and the way they grow. In addition. Vernacularly.
For me, cities are like huge monsters driven by the only rule of expansion and densification. And it's the result of what it produces on the city that interests me.
AK: Regarding your project «Brussels Agglomerations»: What was your intention, and how did you come up with the idea?
SM: As I said, since I studied architecture I am fascinated about the way cities grow and the result of this expansion on buildings and public spaces. This causes absurd situations made of blind gables, residual spaces, wastelands, hollow teeth, backs, extensions,.. visible from the street.
Situations that everyone sees every day but does not notice anymore. Situations that appears to me sometimes violently. For years, I noted somewhere in my head those situations I encountered without taking pictures mostly because I didn't have a suitable camera.
«Brussels agglomeration» is born with those images in my head I wanted to fix on picture, the purchase of a large format camera and the intention to print those in very large format in order to convey the feeling I had.
Following the same intentions, I started to stick those very large format on city's wall. To propose new readings. New situations. new agglomerations.
AK: Which project did you never finish?
SM: Precisely that one «Brussels agglomerations». It is an endless—ongoing project.
AK: What is that one thing you have never managed to photograph and is now gone for good?
SM: I can't stop thinking that I can come back later to re-photography one spot because I am not happy with the light or because I want to take it with another camera. In a city, trees, cars, roads, buildings, weather are constantly changing. There is never exactly the same situation twice.
AK: If you could travel back/forth in time, what advice would you give your younger/older self?
SM: I had never thought or dreamed that I would be a photographer one day. I started my working life being an architect and being interested in photography. Then, I started to take photographies for architectural offices where I was working as an architect. And then for more and more architects. One thing leads to another, I quit being an architect to became a freelance photographer. And I couldn't be happier—now.
So my advice is Trust in you. You are a photogtapher. Trust in the future—you never now what will happen.
AK: What do you prefer saying: «to take a photograph» or to «make a photograph», and why?
SM: I work on the city, on the urban reality and complexity. I take fragments of the city. And with my photographs, I extract it, I isolate them from context to put focus on city complexity. So, I take photograph of situations that exist.
AK: What is the most interesting experience you have had while photographing?
SM: I can't remember the most interesting experience. Photographing on the street generally attracts attention. People interact with me.They avoid me, talk to me, ask me if it's for TV, ask me to leave, want to be photographed, ask me what I'm doing, recognize the camera, tell me their experience with photographers—photographing on the street with a large format camera is always an experience.
AK: If it wasn’t for photography, what would you be interested in doing instead?
SM: I love cinema. It touches me deeply. Being a Director fascinates me. It seems to be impossible such it seems complex and total. Or, something totaly different, I aspire to live simplier. Go back to basics outside of cities, work the land, barter with my neighbours—being more resilient.
A: How would you describe one of your pictures to a blind person?
SM: The photograph is in landscape format with 4x5 proportions: The main subject of that photograph is about architecture. We can see a town house surrounded by huge sections of walls. These walls take up the most of the photograph. They are made of blind gables of differents forms, patterns and textures with low saturated colors graduated from white to red burgundy.
The photograph was taken from the public space, from a higher point of view around 1 meter above men's gaze. We can't see the street. It's like we look up. We look towards three quarter back of a townhouse. We can see the side and the back of it. This house takes the first right third of the picture.
It is built against sections of walls from a higher and deeper construction. From it, we can just see common walls surrounded the whole house and garden. Those walls takes the left two-thirds of the image and almost the entire hight of it. It lets just appear a thin white sky. It's a huge blind wall divided in three part with different patterns—tortoiseshell tile and different tones of red bricks.
The side of the house is a big white blind wall—it is also a common wall waiting for another townhouse to be built against. This common wall is prolongated on the lower part in the center of the picture by a lower wall. We can imagine that this is the back garden fence wall of the house because a tree protrudes from it.
From the back of the house, we can see windows and three extensions that overlook the garden located at the back. Those additional volumes of the regular shape of a house are typical of vernacular brussels architecture.
So we can say, the house is a slice of a house completely stucked between huge blind walls. It looks like the house was there before and the others buildings came after regardless what was already existing, and turn its back. For inhabitants it seems to be a violent architectural situation. That's that violence I wanted to catch with that photography.
AK: What are you currently working on, and—if there is—what is your next project or journey?
SM: I am still working on «Brussel Agglomeration» but to be honest I am not sure that I will be able to say that it is over one day. I continue to stick them on city's walls. But still, i would like to expand that project on other cities.
A: Thank you, Séverin!
If you have a project that you would like to present on this platform, please feel free to share it using the submission form.
Photography: Séverin Malaud (2022–ongoing)
Location: Brussels, Belgium
AK: Please introduce yourself—what is your name, where are you from, what do you do?
SM: My name is Séverin I come from France but I live in Brussels, Belgium since fifteen years now. I studied architecture in La Cambre and since five years I am a Brussels based freelance photographer.
AK: What is your relationship with photography, and how did you get into it?
AM: My relationship with photography is very dependent of architecture. I came to brussels for studying architecture in La Cambre. And concomitantly, I discovered analog photography as a medium for architectural representation. I was fascinated by the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher. As much by the subject as of the photographic technique. It deeply influenced me.
Also, there are many similarities between architecture and photography. Like the work of composition, framing, light, context, materials,... Both practices feed on each other.
AK: What do you think triggers you to photograph in a certain moment? Is it planned or solely driven by intuition?
SM: I spend a lot of time cycling in the city. And randomly on my trips I spot places with my phone. I come back later when the light is good to take the photographs. So, it's a planned intuition..
AK: What is the story you want your pictures to tell?
SM: It's something between architecture, city and territory. It always has to be actually made by men and women. With my picutres i want to connect, to confront, to put emphasis on, to laugh on human actions made in his environment. It's about forms, materials, textures, patterns, colors.
AK: Which city would you like to visit the most, and why?
SM: I don't want to visit one city particularly but cities in general. All cities are the same but different. The same: because they are all subjects of land and population pressures. Different: because each city has his personal way to answer to those pressures. It is this answer I like to identify and photograph.
AK: What is your personal relationship to cities, and how do you perceive them as places in general?
SM: What fascinates me with cities is the way they are built and the way they grow. In addition. Vernacularly.
For me, cities are like huge monsters driven by the only rule of expansion and densification. And it's the result of what it produces on the city that interests me.
AK: Regarding your project «Brussels Agglomerations»: What was your intention, and how did you come up with the idea?
SM: As I said, since I studied architecture I am fascinated about the way cities grow and the result of this expansion on buildings and public spaces. This causes absurd situations made of blind gables, residual spaces, wastelands, hollow teeth, backs, extensions,.. visible from the street.
Situations that everyone sees every day but does not notice anymore. Situations that appears to me sometimes violently. For years, I noted somewhere in my head those situations I encountered without taking pictures mostly because I didn't have a suitable camera.
«Brussels agglomeration» is born with those images in my head I wanted to fix on picture, the purchase of a large format camera and the intention to print those in very large format in order to convey the feeling I had.
Following the same intentions, I started to stick those very large format on city's wall. To propose new readings. New situations. new agglomerations.
AK: Which project did you never finish?
SM: Precisely that one «Brussels agglomerations». It is an endless—ongoing project.
AK: What is that one thing you have never managed to photograph and is now gone for good?
SM: I can't stop thinking that I can come back later to re-photography one spot because I am not happy with the light or because I want to take it with another camera. In a city, trees, cars, roads, buildings, weather are constantly changing. There is never exactly the same situation twice.
AK: If you could travel back/forth in time, what advice would you give your younger/older self?
SM: I had never thought or dreamed that I would be a photographer one day. I started my working life being an architect and being interested in photography. Then, I started to take photographies for architectural offices where I was working as an architect. And then for more and more architects. One thing leads to another, I quit being an architect to became a freelance photographer. And I couldn't be happier—now.
So my advice is Trust in you. You are a photogtapher. Trust in the future—you never now what will happen.
AK: What do you prefer saying: «to take a photograph» or to «make a photograph», and why?
SM: I work on the city, on the urban reality and complexity. I take fragments of the city. And with my photographs, I extract it, I isolate them from context to put focus on city complexity. So, I take photograph of situations that exist.
AK: What is the most interesting experience you have had while photographing?
SM: I can't remember the most interesting experience. Photographing on the street generally attracts attention. People interact with me.They avoid me, talk to me, ask me if it's for TV, ask me to leave, want to be photographed, ask me what I'm doing, recognize the camera, tell me their experience with photographers—photographing on the street with a large format camera is always an experience.
AK: If it wasn’t for photography, what would you be interested in doing instead?
SM: I love cinema. It touches me deeply. Being a Director fascinates me. It seems to be impossible such it seems complex and total. Or, something totaly different, I aspire to live simplier. Go back to basics outside of cities, work the land, barter with my neighbours—being more resilient.
A: How would you describe one of your pictures to a blind person?
SM: The photograph is in landscape format with 4x5 proportions: The main subject of that photograph is about architecture. We can see a town house surrounded by huge sections of walls. These walls take up the most of the photograph. They are made of blind gables of differents forms, patterns and textures with low saturated colors graduated from white to red burgundy.
The photograph was taken from the public space, from a higher point of view around 1 meter above men's gaze. We can't see the street. It's like we look up. We look towards three quarter back of a townhouse. We can see the side and the back of it. This house takes the first right third of the picture.
It is built against sections of walls from a higher and deeper construction. From it, we can just see common walls surrounded the whole house and garden. Those walls takes the left two-thirds of the image and almost the entire hight of it. It lets just appear a thin white sky. It's a huge blind wall divided in three part with different patterns—tortoiseshell tile and different tones of red bricks.
The side of the house is a big white blind wall—it is also a common wall waiting for another townhouse to be built against. This common wall is prolongated on the lower part in the center of the picture by a lower wall. We can imagine that this is the back garden fence wall of the house because a tree protrudes from it.
From the back of the house, we can see windows and three extensions that overlook the garden located at the back. Those additional volumes of the regular shape of a house are typical of vernacular brussels architecture.
So we can say, the house is a slice of a house completely stucked between huge blind walls. It looks like the house was there before and the others buildings came after regardless what was already existing, and turn its back. For inhabitants it seems to be a violent architectural situation. That's that violence I wanted to catch with that photography.
AK: What are you currently working on, and—if there is—what is your next project or journey?
SM: I am still working on «Brussel Agglomeration» but to be honest I am not sure that I will be able to say that it is over one day. I continue to stick them on city's walls. But still, i would like to expand that project on other cities.
A: Thank you, Séverin!
If you have a project that you would like to present on this platform, please feel free to share it using the submission form.
Photography: Séverin Malaud (2022–ongoing)
Location: Brussels, Belgium
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allcitiesarebeautiful.com is a community-driven, cross-disciplinary platform for contemporary documentary photography and literature.
News • Artists • Publishers • Submissions • Newsletter • Press • About • Imprint • RSS
