Noordhollands Dagblad | Friday, January 23 2004
PECULIAR LOCATIONS PICTURED BY ROB SWEEBE
Hoorn - " what engages me is the disappearing of that special singularity in my environment, the unstoppably advancing uniformity" says photographer Rob Sweebe. In this matter of speech he sets the tendency for his extensive exhibition in which he makes his first appearance with free work.
Sweebe was born in Indonesia but came to Holland together with his parents in 1960. He went to secondary school in Weert and studied to be a teacher in arts. Then he followed courses in photography on the academy of art in Breda were he was disappointed by the lack of technical aspects.
Photography for the general public
To compensate he studied at the Fotovakschool and graduated. Sweebe started a studio in Eindhoven and was occupied with photography for the general public such as weddings and portraits. Beside that he worked for industries and advertising. His passion for free photography was so strong that he decided to stop his business and develop himself as a free photographer.
The appropriate title of the exhibition is 'With all my heart'. It is also the initiation for a photobook. In most of the photographs 'decline' is his theme. Sweebe took photos of cracking stucco, rotting wood and rusting metals. As well as graffiti on walls and warped windows and doors.
In a series of photos we see details of graffiti on walls. Those are subtle works with little colour. The simple lines on a rough surface reminds one of details of prehistorical cave drawings. Some other photos show poorly maintained half timbered houses. Windows stuffed with old cloths to keep out the cold, makes one suspect that these houses were found in Eastern Germany.
Documentary character
In the exhibition we miss the definition of time and place. For a photo exhibition that has the character of a documentation this is indispensable. Beside photos of decline Sweebe also makes photos of landscapes.
The photographer lives in Bemmel, a village between Arnhem and Nijmegen in The Netherlands.
Panoramic river landscapes in broad daylight but also at sunset he has poetically pictured. Some of the river photos are taken in winter. A thin layer of snow, not yet touched by man, creates scenes of purity, giving one a feeling of peace and space. Some photos show Sweebe's strong sense of composition.
Sober black & whites, with masses of clouds above dead trees result in quite picturesque work.
Photography is a form of art which is closely related to technical improvement. The process was given to the world in a solemn session by the 'Academie des Sciences' in France in August 19th 1839. What had begun as 'writing in light' has changed strongly by the introduction of digital cameras and computer programs. Nowadays perfect images are more easily made. Sweebe already was a photographer in the seventies, when photographers experimented with rough grain structures and other photo technical materials. Although he digitised his negatives he misses the old darkroom, where failures and discoveries kept the profession vivid. The chemical structure of silvergrain is very typical for photography, but now it is replaced by a square screen of pixels (electronically coded photo elements).
Although in early days many images were changed by stripping and retouch, now images can be manipulated invisibly. This brings the degree of factuality of documentary photographs to discussion.
Sweebe uses digital techniques to visualise the themes in which he is interested in a symbolic way, as in contrast to his documentaries. Sometimes he uses old images and combines them with new ones.
On one of his intriguing works for instance, one sees stone statues of saints, flanked by earthly women. The photograph is a single one in the exhibition and therefore it is too soon to tell whether this is the new direction Sweebe is going, although it seems to be so. Most works show us fragments of a world where things have remained the old way. He took this photos, knowing that these valuable spots will be gone very soon.
