Looking back to move forward
How do you build on the past without being trapped by it?
Lately I've been thinking about that balance - how an artist moves between revisiting what made them who they are and pushing into the unknown. A recent conversation with my gallery led me back to some of my earlier work, the work that shaped me and became part of what people recognize as my photography.
And I don't see that as a bad thing. Sometimes going back to past work is like a DJ playing a track that the crowd knows by heart. The ones that defined a sound, a moment, a movement. But the best DJs don't just play the hits - they remix, they rework, they build something new out of the familiar. The energy is there, the foundation is there, but it moves forward. That's how I see my work.
I'm revisiting some of my earlier pieces, not to repeat them, but to push them further-to find what made them resonate and to evolve that essence into something new. But with evolution comes risk. What if I push forward and the market doesn't follow? What if I push into new ideas and they don't sell right away?
That's the tension every artist faces. Do you stay where it's safe, or do you take control of your own evolution before the market defines it for you? I don't believe in abandoning the past, but I also know that repeating it for too long will eventually lead to stagnation.
For me, the unknown is not something to be avoided-it's where the most interesting things happen. My Echo from Beyond project is a step into that future - merging my archive with AI, exploring what happens when photography and technology collide. But I want to go further. Right now I'm experimenting with sculpture - bringing the forms and contrasts I've always explored in photography into physical space.
That doesn't mean leaving behind what I've built. Some work will always be part of my identity, like a DJ playing the tracks that people connect with. But the challenge is to take what's essential and push it somewhere unexpected.
This next phase isn't about choosing between the past and the future - it's about using one to build the other.
More soon.
-Bastiaan
Very interesting. Btw, Carlos reminds me of Franz Kafka;)