DAFOS Photo World

Went to see the Steve McCurry exhibition on a day off recently. Of course, took my camera with the “nifty 50” fitted, and a B&W memory card… Excellent expo by the way – a must-see.

We were honoured to have had a visit from Geoffroy Coomans de Brachène, Deputy Mayor of Brussels, for town Planning and Heritage, at the “Finissage” of the Viewfinders exhibition “Aamet et Marolles” at the delightful “La Clef d’Or” café. Mr. Coomans is also interested in photography, and we talked about some future projects he has in mind for Brussels where – who knows – we may be able to play an active role.

I’m particularly proud of this exhibition – it really showed the strong links we are building between the international community (the “ex-pats”) and the people of the beautiful city we now call our home!

(These photos (c) CH)

I recently got to go up on the roof of the building where I work. It offers a lovely view of the “Palais de Justice / Justitiepaleis”. The spire of Poelaert’s monster building seems to reach eagerly to the sky from among the pile of scaffolding that has been keeping it up for the last 20 years or so. Still, the sun catches the dome nicely…

Molenbeek – much maligned in the last year or so – in need of much TLC; just as much as the rest of Brussels after the events of 22/3/2016. The scars will take a long time to mend, but the canal area still holds a kind of magic. The canal itself forms a kind of natural frontier between what people regard as the “less good” parts of Molenbeek and the rest of Brussels. A walk along there of an evening yielded some nice shots!

The “Heyzel” is a wonderful piece of Brussel’s nostalgia. Built for the “Word Fair” in 1958, the building complex still houses a lot of trade fairs and the like. I’ve been there often, as a visitor and to do photo jobs, and it never ceases to impress. It is part of a park that includes various tourist attractions, including the world-famous (in Belgium at least) “Atomium” (can’t sell photos of that – it’s copyrighted!). A sunny Sunday afternoon visiting the “Photo Days” trade show also gave the opportunity to re-capture some of this site’s sights…

Not posted much lately… The usual excuse – too much work. So, a holiday break gives some time to be lazy (mostly) or do other things (some of the time). Like go for walks around and see things around town.

In Brussels, the “Botanique” (Kruidtuin, or “herb garden” in Dutch) is a renowned and revered centre for cultural activities. It’s concert-hall hosts pop/rock concerts (it’s the French-speaking community’s colleague of the Dutch-speaking one, paradoxically called “Ancien Belgique”. Did I mention that such playful paradoxes are one of the reasons I love Brussels?). It also has a gallery often used for photo exhibitions. Top-class ones too! Went to see Alex Webb’s “The Suffering of Light” exhibition there recently. And of course couldn’t resist photographing the lovely building, it’s gardens and view over part of the city.

I used to work in that blue, oval-cylindrically shaped building that modestly calls itself “Covent Garden”. The pointy one in the background – third tallest building in Belgium, apparently – was once a financial temple, owned by a now defunct bank but renamed after the financial crisis in 2012 to reflect the name of the square it’s on – “Rogier Tower”. And I’ll be organising quite a big event in that hotel on the left fairly soon, too…

And of course there’s the gardens of the lovely old conservatory building itself…

Love this city, despite all its faults…

It was nice to see Brussels coming back to life yesterday. Lovely sunny day, nice walk in the shady park at the Brussels “Iris Festival” – food truck food event and electro music outside the palace (hope Philippe didn’t have to work…).