Bieke Depoorter. Agata. Beirut. Lebanon. August 2, 2018. © Bieke Depoorter | Magnum Photos
Seeing is believing, and therein lies the rub when picking up the camera and taking photographs. “I don’t think pictures tell the truth,” Bieke Depoorter says, recognizing the fundamental paradox of art. Representation is not the thing itself, but a world all its own.
.
Because of this belief, Depoorter takes exquisite care of those she meets. “I want to be with people first as a person, then as a photographer,” she says. “I am really questioning the medium. Why I am doing it? How do you use the people you are photographing, and how can we collaborate with them? How can one photograph or work with ‘the other’ without putting oneself above them?”
.
These questions are at the heart of Agata, a project Depoorter started in November 2017, as part of the Magnum Paris Live Lab. The Belgian photographer remembers the moment as a dark period when feelings of doubt dragged her spirit down.
.
But then, one night, a lot changed. Depoorter was invited to visit an infamous strip club in Paris’ Pigalle district. “They gave me champagne all night long. I think they wanted me to strip there,” she recalls. “I really liked the atmosphere. There were not a lot of men. It was a very strange place. The bouncer told me, ‘There’s a girl here. I think you will like her.’”
.
Read the Full Story at Magnum Photos
.
Bieke Depoorter. Agata. Paris. France. November 2, 2017. © Bieke Depoorter | Magnum Photos