I opened my eyes for the first time in Belgium 48 years ago, and when I was nine they were checked by an optician. She prescribed a pair of purple framed spectacles. With them, I ventured into a new reality, discovering that the world was not actually blurry.
Depth of field and focus became familiar concepts. My spectacles were magic and what I could see was as captivating as the photos emerging in my father’s dark room.
In search of different shades of light, I traveled. And I was fascinated again and again.
I am now based in Jogjakarta, Indonesia. I am submerged in beauty, distaste, noise, silence, peace, violence, poverty, luxury, happiness and disaster.
My surroundings are a sensual surfeit, a place that makes people humans and a haven for someone with a camera and a desire to tell stories. I am forced to explore and challenge my cultural luggage that defines aesthetics.
As a photographer I play with reality and make decisions about how I represent the world.
The stories I tell are real, or not.
Mie Cornoedus presented her project about Yogyakarta’s women activists portrait “Outside-In” at MES 56.