Welcome to the October 2023 newsletter!

As previously mentioned, I took another short road trip to northern Europe last month, taking in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. My inspiration was architecture, in particular the tall and unusual, hopefully both! With a loose working title of "The Architect's Folly", my research created a route through several cities, starting in Brugge then Ghent and Antwerp before crossing the border into the Netherlands, on to Rotterdam (Delft/The Hague) and later to Amsterdam before heading back through Brussels.

Having been aware of Port House in Antwerp for quite a while now this opportunity to visit couldn't be missed. Port House (Havenhuis) in Antwerp demonstrates the power, beauty and extraordinary design of one of the worlds greatest architects - Zaha Hadid. Designed for the Port Authority in Antwerp, this awesome structure floats above an existing historic building, the Fire House. The building itself references the hull and bow of a ship but also the steel and glass forms echo the shape of a diamond, which Antwerp has a long standing relationship with. Fortunately the sun shone pretty much every day of the trip giving lots of opportunity for clean skies and deep shadows in the images. I am very pleased with the results, above and below.

The Architect's Folly

With a focus on buildings both ancient, contemporary and anything in between, Brugge in Belgium was a natural starting point. The Belfort and Poortersloge, below, were perfect buildings for this project. Later on in Rotterdam I visited "De Rotterdam", a vast mixed use structure by OMA (Rem Koolhaas) architects. The Palais de Justice in Brussels is currently undergoing major refurbishment but draped in scaffolding, sheeting etc it retains a demanding and grand presence. Below are some examples of this new work.

The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Amsterdam was very high up on the list of places to see, not only is the architecture amazing it also has the Rijksmuseum, one of the greatest museums in the world, it houses an extraordinary wealth of old master paintings by the likes of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, Avercamp, Hobbema and so on...

Amongst these I was excited to see two relatively new acquisitions by Rembrandt - Portrait of Marten Soolmans and Portrait of Oopjen Coppit, painted to celebrate their marriage in 1634. The story of the acquisition was featured in a fascinating documentary - "My Rembrandt" (2019). Owned by brothers, Alain and Eric de Rothschild the pair were offered for sale to pay a large tax bill. The asking price - €160m! They have been in the Rothschild collection since 1878 and are now joint owned by the Louvre in Paris and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Ghent, Belgium

Taking photographs for me involves hours on foot, just looking for images. Some are planned, using apps such as LightTrac, an invaluable tool for tracking the position of the sun on any given date globally. Otherwise I just wander, hoping for something to appear... optimism! - who invented that? As one of my many favourite painters Francis Bacon often said - "Inspiration comes from regular work" - You have to put the hours and miles in. My steps monitor clocked over 22,000 steps (10 miles) in Brussels, a record for me.

Mid-afternoon in Ghent I chose to investigate a quiet street heading away from the centre of town and was fairly quickly rewarded with the beautiful facade below. Originally a house I believe, it is bookended by several similar buildings which are mostly shops now. For me, it has the look of a movie set... but it's real, here and now 2023.

35% Off Selected Prints

I am very pleased to offer a 35% discount to all of my subscribers on the four prints listed below.

Just click on any of the images and apply the discount code PRINT35D at checkout.

*This offer applies to any available size from an edition, one purchase per customer.

Limited time offer ends on October 31st 2023. Only applies when entering your registered email address.

Archive - 1986!

My archive photograph this month goes back almost as far as I can go. October 1986 (I was twenty one). This photograph was made using a 35mm SLR - Nikon FG on a 28mm lens, my film of choice at the time was Kodak Tri-X. At this point in time I was heavily influenced by two major photographers, Brett Weston and Michael Kenna. I would even make my own prints and sepia and selenium tone them just like Michael Kenna.

Autumn is here and I have a lot of material to work on now, looking forward to sharing more with you soon...

If you would like to see a more comprehensive view of my work, please visit www.guysargent.net

Have a fantastic October 2023!