Dirk Braeckman (°1958) is one of the leading art photographers in Belgium. Initially he focused mainly on (self)portraits, but later he chose scenes iof abandoned sites, empty spaces, parts of the body and enlarged surfaces of objects with vague contours as themes for his black-and-white photographs.

"Braeckman photographs the dreary shower cubicles, the elevators, corridors, curtains, mattresses and frosted-glass windows. The gray photographs make these spaces appear to be even more stale than they already are in reality. Belgian art philosopher Frank Vande Veire put it aptly: 'The photographic haze lies across the depicted interiors like a layer of ash.' And Braeckman himself says, 'By keeping it dark and gray or by printing it out of focus, I eliminate part of the information which detracts from the essence. In this way I aim for a purified situation, into which you’re thrown as a viewer. I investigate things that seem insignificant. These are all places that somehow look as though they’ve been lived in, where the space has withstood a great deal or where people have gone through a lot, though you’ll never know what that was'." (De Pont)
Dirk Braeckman lives and works in Ghent, Belgium.