Photography - Filip Dujardin

  

The first label I introduced on this blog was "Soviet Visions" (which you already noticed, I hope). Portraying old, used or unused buildings and sculptures in former Soviet states.
In a way, I return to these strange, abandoned giants now by visiting some other "constructions" that catched my eye some time ago. I can still feel the spirit of the Soviet buildings, when I look at these pictures of Belgian photographer Filip Dujardin.
 

Initially working as an architectural photographer, he felt the urge to create his "own" buildings instead of documenting the works of others. So he simply started to use his children's Lego system to figure out new shapes and structures for buildings, continuing with digital modeling, photoshop, etc., but still using a lot of real footage as source material for creating the surfaces and details of his fictional constructions.
And yes, they are fictional. On the first sight, the pictures seem to be real, showing old or post modern architecture from the 60ies or 70ies (which Dujardin especially likes, because of their patina that helps him to create the haptic authencity). 

The fact that many people are guessing if these buildings are real or not, looking at them for the first time, turns his work into an interesting riddle.

I'm very keen on buildings from the 60ies and 70ies in general. And the ex-Soviet, abandoned and strange ones in particular. Dujardin's works goes in the same direction, but it contains a new kind of quality that fascinates me.
There's an atmosphere of clarity and pureness in it, that captures me and it feels like another dream to me. Like the one I described before in my blog labels "Digital / Concept Art" about Daniel Dociu and "Animation" about the short movie Quest, that dream has some influence on me and my creative work…

I'm walking upon a smooth hill, and there's a buidling on the top, surrounded by a field of grass. Very clean, shiny and kind of post modern, with a lot of glass. It seems to have two quiet high levels, but with no light in them. 

The weather is cloudy, windy and rainy, but I can't feel any raindrops on my skin. Somehow, a gentle sunray enlightens the upper part of the house. That's why I believe I can recognize a telescope, standing behind the big windows on the front. But nobody's there. I'm walking slowly thru the grass towards the house. All alone.

 

Filip Dujardin was born 1971 in Gent, Belgium. He studied history of art, specializing in architecture and is a photographer of architecture, interiors and design. Real and some different ones.
 

www.filipdujardin.be