Jasper de Beijer, Udongo 08, 2009.
Courtesy Galerie Nouvelles Images, Den Haag

“… Jasper de Beijer play[s] with reality in [his] photographs. After all, a photograph shows what is seen through the lens. However, what if that is not actually reality, but a specially constructed version of reality? … [D]e Beijer goes even further: he makes life-size, three-dimensional models – often of paper – which he then photographs, producing images reminiscent of Victorian prints. Fabulous Fictions shows us that, in their work, nothing is what it seems… On a trip to Ghana De Beijer was struck by the fact that Africa looks nothing like the exotic, Western image he had from photographs and stories. Life was just as banal there as it was at home. Back in his studio, he built a jungle set with life-size dummies which he photographed, approaching it not as a cultural anthropologist would, but in a way that gives us another picture of Africa which, despite the constructed scenes, actually appears more real than the photographs we normally see of the continent and its people …”

Foto Museum Den Haag, The Netherlands,

HT: Maluka