Antwerp
Blog 2, Summer 2023
Saturday July 1st, 9 a.m. and we are on our way to Antwerp. This would turn out to be one of the three trips I would make this month to Antwerp. Leila would stay here for a stage for the next 4 weeks. We arrived at her accommodation for the month and straight away in front of the warehouse we meet Joost, Joost Vyncke. Owner of L.A.P. - Life Art Project. It used to be an old grain warehouse. Joost turned this into a 4 storage Palace and gives to artists and students, a home for short or longer stays, where they can practise their creativity in the ateliers.
Leila and myself introduce ourself and straight away he asked me: “What do you do?”. This was a good question. Easy answer would be: “I’m a chef”. Cooking was the one thing I did for the last 18 years straight. Actually its the only thing I started to do in my life without quitting. Fair to say I’m pretty good at it, but more and more, I don’t love it as much as I use to do. Only the funny thing is, if I told someone I was a chef, which I still was, I was confident. He could asked me anything about cooking. I would be able 99,9% of the time to give him a correct answer. I could have told him I worked at the best restaurants in Amsterdam, that I was part of the opening teams that opened luxurious 5 start hotels in Amsterdam and Bangkok. Only the photography I put more and more time in and to be honest I want to become good at. I would love to be as good with a camera as with a knife, so to speak. But I am not. Far from it. Just as with cooking, I need to put my time in it and learn as much as I can. Which is fine, but to call myself a photographer still doesn’t feels right. But I should… or not. Anyway, after keeping my mouth shut for 5 seconds, I hear myself say: “I’m a photographer!” Maybe I just need to get used to it. Joost eyes started to shine and with a big smile he said: “Really? Me too!” FUCK!!
After a short tour we arrived at the top floor. The fourth floor is where Joost and his family live. It’s amazing: one big open space full of art, music, couches, big table and a massive bath with a shower in the middle of the room! We start with a glass of water but after 5 minutes I have a beer and Leila has a pretty big glass of red wine in front of her. We talk about the building and how he built it. That its a space to create art, study but also a space to party and have exhibitions. After a while I ask Joost about his photography. Turned out he was a big fashion photographer, but when everything became more digital he stopped doing it. He didn’t say much about his work but I felt he was and still is a great photographer.
One week later we came back to L.A.P. from a dinner and run into Joost again downstairs, where his garage / exhibition space is. Beer? We sat down on his old couches between old motorcycles and old school VW vans. I edited some of my images I made from the week before and after a while I asked him to have a look at them. Honestly, I regretted it the second I gave my phone to him. It was like giving my old chef Roger Rassin my Jus to taste. Something we needed to do back at the Amstel Hotel, one spoon of Veal Jus on a small side dish. To check the shine of the jus, the texture and taste. I was around 22 years old, but had more confidence in my Veal Jus back then, than in my pictures right now. Joost was fair and gave my some good feedback. Something to work on. When I came home I started to look online for more information about him, maybe to see some of his work from back in the days. But like he said: “I don’t like digital…”
