Bieke Depoorter Sète, France. 2014.
“The relationship I have with the people I photograph has always been very important to me. It strongly influences my photography. In my earlier work, I found it crucial to rel
(...) ate to my subjects first as a person, and only after as a photographer.
During an artistic residency in the southern French fisherman town Sète, I felt uncomfortable with this feeling that I was using the people. I was asked to produce a book in a very short period of time, which made me doubt my own practice. It didn't seem possible to be as close to them as I normally would want to be.
As a solution, I decided to see the people as actors. With the series ‘Sète #15,’ I explored the thin line between fiction and documentary for the first time. I decided to introduce a nocturnal vision of the city with a cinematic, dream-like atmosphere. I used reality to make my own reality, my own story.”
— Bieke Depoorter © Bieke Depoorter | Magnum Photos