Eugene's Neighborhood

About the Photographer

Goiris, Geert

Belgian, b. 1971

The work of Geert Goiris imparts a sense of mystery by juxtaposing significant built structures with ordinary ones, landscapes with still lifes, and recognizable locations with unfamiliar ones. Goiris travels the world, seeking out unusual, remote places and interpreting them in enigmatic images that reflect discovery, unease, and melancholy. He captures images that expose the effects of the passage of time on built structures, or sometimes on things as ephemeral or seemingly insignificant as a pile of snow. In this act, he reveals that all built structures can evoke memory—some understood more collectively and others more individually.

In his pictures of iconic, modernist structures, Goiris celebrates the aspirational and often eccentric intentions of the designers and political systems that erected them, most of which are now defunct. His gloomy rendering of the radical globe-shaped, spaceship-like “Bolwoning” houses designed by Dutch architect Dries Kreijkamp, conveys the wistful uncanniness of a radical vision now eclipsed. Goiris contrasts these images with others that are less forthcoming about their place and time but emphasize the transformative power of photography. He explains: “I share a sensitivity with the romantic tradition—where sensual experiences and the merging of body and environment come into play. My images are not documentary—they do not claim to show things as they are, but more as they seem.”

Geert Goiris completed his master’s degree in Photography from Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium (2002). He has held solo exhibitions at FRAC Haute Normandie, Rouen, France (2016), Galerie Catherine Bastide, Brussels (2015), VOX, Montreal, CA (2014), Museum M, Leuven, Belgium (2013), and Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany (2010), among others. His works are held in the collections of the National Center of Visual Arts (CNAP), the National Foundation for Contemporary Art (FNAC), and the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA.