( Sehr Langsam )

Lieven Lefere (b. 1978, Roeselare, BE) is an artist who plays with the complex relationship between reality and the photographic image. Lefere creates a unique atmosphere in his images, which far transcend photography of the purely documentary kind, depicting reality in a similar way to how it appears in painting or architecture. The absence of human figures and his fascination with impermanence reinforce that atmosphere. In Lefere’s work, time seems manipulated: delayed, frozen or even absent. Due to his approach, Lefere’s images are always developed over an extended period of time. This protracted process yields highly layered images that are charged with meaning and require patience to decipher. They are the antithesis of what we usually associate with photography: more a constructed intention than a slice of life, more monument than snapshot. Cryptic, evocative and alienating all at once.