Joselito Verschaeve interweaves black and white photographs of both day-to-day encounters and staged fiction from archives of his own work, to create visual short stories which defy conventional interpretation. The recurring motif of the bird in many forms — as an illustration, origami creation, in-flight or emerging from sand — is interspersed with images of textured rocks, the moon and paths which lead and disappear off the page. The human presence in the images is slight — figures veiled, melding into the landscape or moving out of the frame, a grooved hand echoing the natural formation of rocks — all bit parts in the narrative.

The images have been drawn from the artistʼs ever-accumulating archive, and have been selected and arranged in a rhythmic pattern, mimicking the act of writing a poem or a short novel.

“My work leans on day-to-day encounters that are or turn narrative driven. With the idea of building an archive which can fit different themes while maintaining certain interchangeability. With this archive gradually growing itʼs possible to move around images and create new narratives.”

– Joselito Verschaeve

Drawing upon an aesthetic born from surrealism, the project hints at personal fascinations, alongside visions of dystopia feeding upon the portent of current threats and events. Verschaeve is interested in the idea of ʻmagical realismʼ and the addition of something ʻextraʼ into the common-place and the mundane. Taking the leap and transplanting the genre from literary fiction into black and white photography — the visual language with past associations with documentary and truth telling — Verschaeve layers a veil of poetry over the every day.

Written by: Eleanor Macnair