Involuntary Scenes
L'instant s'expose, le regard alors se pose. L'oeil le décompose et par plaisir, fige la pause. C'est le plaisir qui guide l'oeil.
Quand le plaisir commence, l'instant apparaît et l'image, d'elle même, se construit. Quote by Patrick Van Roy

[ Photographic idea ">

Patrick Van Roy says "I love the medium of photography because it can simplify or distil things in a visual sense. When taking pictures, you can isolate, crop, remove elements from their context, freeze the moment. Photography has the power to transform, to tell a story, to give a subjective opinion. Photography can deceive, it can lie and that for me that is part of it's beauty. Photograph does not tell the truth but it offers infinite creative possibilities for the photographer, it can offer one thousand views, one thousand choices. It goes beyond appearances and provokes the imagination."

[ involuntary scenes "> 2001/05

The time is 5pm - 7pm in the evening, offices are emptying, shops are closing and subways and stations are filling with commuters. People are returning home, following their normal everyday routines. Their eyes are unseeing, the brain is set in stand-by mode. These pictures are taken in and around the Brussels public transport system. Afterwards the photographs are analysed, cropped and enlarged excessively. The images show the involuntary theatrical scenes in which each person takes part, every day. This technique or visual device reveals scenes which most of us do not perceive, we are all much too accustomed to walking fast and with our heads down. The almost ghostly attitude of the people photographed illustrates a feeling of solitude, despite the fact and often because the figures themselves are in a busy public place. There is a feeling of sadness and that they and indeed we all are alone.
This series is a visual comment on things and events that are part of of our daily environment. Things which we often can't see by the first look, but which are only revealed by an effort of imagination.

[short biography and principal works">

Patrick Van Roy is a self-taugh photographer who was born in Brussels Belgium in 1972. He was given his first camera at the age of ten. At university he studied electro-mechanical Engineering diploma in 1994 .
1997 Sous les revers - Association of short texts of Bérénice Teheux and black and white photography
1999 E.M.M.A. - installation with 4 black and white diapositives (160x40inches)
2001/05 Mises en scènes involontaires - Color photographs (40x40inches) - National theatre / Brussels - 1/1 Gallery / Brussels - Special prize at the European Photography FNAC Prize 2004 - Bortier Gallery / Brussels

2003/06 Perspectives nocturnes - Color photographs (48x48inches) - Benoot Gallery / Ostende & Knokke - FAWA private exhibition / Brussels - Bortier Gallery / Brussels - Winner of the European Photography FNAC Prize 2005 / Arles - FNAC forums
2006 Warning - Color photographs - work in progress
2006 publication of the book "Perspectives nocturnes" - 96 pages - 42 photographs - size 6x6inches