.SERIES

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.ABOUT MY WORK The starting point in my work is photography; it's authenticity and voyeurism. Besides using the medium, I research the role it plays in looking at reality. Referring to cliché's developed by the omnipresence of images, I try to direct the viewer by playing with his 'experience in viewing'. I am interested in the cultural differences in reading an image, how one image can give reverse messages. I am also interested in the universal need to take and cherish pictures of loved ones.

.CAUCHY HORIZONS (2012)

Black holes have a ‘point of no return’ beyond which nothing comes back, not even light can escape. In physics these so called outer and inner event horizons  are considered as gateways to the future and as bridges into parallel universes. The phenomena are so strange that it comes as no surprise that science fiction was needed to present us visions of the future and possible new worlds. In Cauchy Horizons Martine Stig investigates the visual language of science fiction cinema as ‘gravitational force’ of our collective imagination.Landmark sci-fi films ranging from Voyage dans la lune, Metropolis and La jettÈe to A Space Odyssey, Solaris and Videodrome, present patterns of symmetry, birds eyes perspectives, double projections, grids, screens, circles, pipes and lines and other aesthetic forms and figures (such as sleeping and running humans) that have shaped our image of the future. .See CAUCHY HORIZONS >>

.ANTE (2010)

Grouped around the protagonist in the image are children of the same age. To the left and right of the main figure we can see smart dresses, neat pullovers, starched (bow) ties and glimpses of these items. The chosen child is controlled in an unnatural looking manner by an upper arm, a tigh or a belly. Only a little can be seen of the setting; it looks unaccustomedly official. It is a set up you recognise, you can remember the accompanying feeling, the photographically frozen tension, the baited breath of those around you while the group portrait was taken. Later on, people often litterally refer to the annual class photo when the child has grown up to be a famous boxer or a politician, an opera singer or a notorious criminal. A circle like a halo is then drawn around their head on that faded group shot. Because, if you are famous, people zoom in... .See ANTE >>

.PLAY (2009)

Play is a second experiment on the possibility of creating a mainstream feature on the basis of documentary shot footage. Staged in New York this time, using its well known filmic dÈcor, I focus on the hard winter light. The streets become stage, the city a theatre. From the database of collected scenes I edited a story; unaware of my camera passers-by become part of a choreography. By playing with codes of filmic narration, Play interrogates the instinctual need of human beings to build up stories in order to make sense of the world.

.SUTO-RI- (2007)

Suto-ri- is my first video. The project started as an experiment on the possibility of creating a mainstream feature on the basis of materials shot in a documentary fashion without actors and without production assistance. Playing with codes of filmic narration, I filmed passers-by on the streets of Tokyo for 3 months, creating a database of scenes. From this database I edited a story; unaware of my camera the passers-by became main characters in my film. By playing with codes of filmic narration, Suto-ri- interrogates the instinctual need of human beings to build up stories in order to make sense of the world. .See SUTO-RI- >>

.ANY RESEMBLANCE TO EXISTING PERSONS IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL (2006)

In the project 'Any resemblance to existing persons is purely coincidental//Stories of Mr. Wood' (2004-2006) we investigate the conventions of telling a story. Starting point is the classical way of telling a story - the Hollywood way - and how this construction determines the way we put the things we see and experience in order. The project is collaboration with graphic designer Vanessa van Dam and consists of telling two different courses of one story. One time in Los Angeles (Hollywood) and one time in Bombay (Bollywood). The story is formed by pieces of documented reality, obtained by following a self-made-method, arranged by the rules of a classic (Hollywood) story. The method consists of a set of rules telling us day by day what to do to gain information. It's an almost scientific method to visualize our way of looking and experiencing. The first day we find out the way Mr. Wood looks, the second day we find the place where he works, the third where he lives. The following days we focus on his social life, his dreams and his memories etcetera. Within ten days a character occurs. Obviously the Los Angeles scenario and the Bombay one unfolds differently. The book is a mixture of maps, photographs, drawings and text. It can be placed somewhere in between an alternative travel guide, a manual for writing film scenarios and a criminal investigation method. We asked the author Maria Barnas to contribute to the book. She wrote an essay narrating from the point of view of Mr. Wood. .See ANY RESEMBLANCE TO EXISTING PERSONS IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL >>

.SISTERS (2005)

Photography is a precarious subject in the veiled world, but it is not forbidden in Kuwait. The rough rule that applies for women is: the more they are veiled, the less they are prepared to be photographed. Nevertheless, these veiled girls take many photographs with modern mobile camera themselves. The difficult position of photography in Islamic society doesn't change the need to own a picture of a loved one. 'Sisters' consists of a series of portraits of fully veiled women. Making a portrait of someone who is veiled seems rather paradoxical, for the viewer the people in the photographs are unrecognizable. Despite the absence of a face, the images are intimate. The recognizable way of depicting them tells us that they were taken to remember and cherish the figures in the portraits. .See SISTERS >>

.THAI-GIRLS (2003)

'Thai-girls' (2003) plays with the western image of Thai women. The series consists of portraits of young girls who turn around to glance, seductive or by chance, at you the spectator. Observing and being observed, the (western) spectator might associate the images with the sex industry. At a closer watch the uniform white blouses appear, the girls turn out to be economy students, ready to take their place in the - mainly female run - thai business world. .See THAI-GIRLS >>

.D.P.R.K. (2002)

'DPRK' (2002) is a series of street images of North Korea. Only strictly supervised traveling in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea is possible. The images show scenes, directed by the state, taken from a point of view approved by the guides. By handing-over the direction of photography, I show what the regime wants to show; imposing monuments and enormous squares. At the same time the spectator sees an artificial set where people look like 'extras'. .See D.P.R.K. >>

.BLOOS/BLUSH (2002)

'Blush' (2002) consists of portraits of blushing girls. By freezing an uneasy moment the spectator is being confronted with a normally hidden vulnerability. Color and expression of the girl's faces point to something happening outside the visible image. The series Blush balances on the dividing line between private and public domain. As viewers we have no idea of what triggered these facial expressions. That remains off screen. .See BLOOS/BLUSH >>

.HELLO (2000)

Photographs make the world flat. They thrust reality into a different space, even though the viewer recognizes and accepts it as the space in which he himself moves. In a photograph the distance between foreground and background becomes smaller, and in the flat plane figures far away from one another become neighbors. In this way photographs create a dual reality: one, which is formal, and another we call real. In the series Hello I make use of this. Hello contains a series of meetings that are not meetings, in the sense that they are purely photographic. But while they are only visual, only image, they are also street photography, creating the impression that they are real, simply because they actually happened. I use the formal power of the medium to freeze life. The anonymity of the big city seems to fade for a moment. .See HELLO >>

.MEN (1999)

'Men' (1999) is a series of images of the street of La Paz, Bolivia. We see men shielding there eyes from the sunlight. While hiding for the bright sun, the passers-by seem to hide for the camera. Bolivians shielding themselves from the sun become people who do not want their picture taken, it makes them look like celebrities or gangsters. .See MEN >>

.AFTER (1998)

Each picture shows a couple, man and wife, right after having sex. The scene is tense, provocative, and at the same time more than a little uncomfortable. The hard light reveals a great deal, but nothing of the atmosphere in which the couples were together such a short time ago. As observers, we are not only looking at a double portrait, we are also examining the question of what it is like to be looked at this way, and what it is like to be the one so explicitly doing the looking. .See AFTER >>

	.AVOID (1998)

In Avoid (1998) I tried to take pictures in New York City in which not a single billboard is visible. At eye level, the city is full with advertisement, capturing the attention of each passing consumer. Visually it is difficult to avoid. Focusing on something that must not be shown, everything that does appear in the picture is a bonus. The unintended aesthetic compositions suddenly show a very non-descript place. .See AVOID >>

.ZONDAG/SUNDAY (1997)

Sunday (1997) is a family album of a fictitious childhood. In this series I searched for the unwritten rules for family photography, the cliché images that function as a collective memory. I staged scenes that can be found in every family album. The interchangeable pictures are so recognizable that no one doubts their genuineness. .See ZONDAG/SUNDAY >>

.LEUK VOOR LATER/FOR FUTURE USE (1995)

Leuk voor later (For future use) (1995) which I made for my final exam. I tried to figure out to what extent does photography contribute to the creation of memories. In this series I focused on the properties of the snapshot. I staged scenes that could be taken from my daily life. By using tricks and aesthetics of the snapshot the images became convincing, as if the action really took place. .See LEUK VOOR LATER/FOR FUTURE USE >>