_17 SECONDS PORTRAITS

Esther makes portraits with an antique (1890) technical field camera. 
Where a modern camera uses 1/60 of a second, Esther's wooden plate camera dated 1890 has a shutter time of 17 seconds. 


With this special technique Esther wants to capture specific pieces of the inner world of the person, that a modern camera could never get. This slow and lingering process creates an intensity that became the signature of her pictures.


In working this way, Esther slows down the initiation of the photographic process. “It is the opposite of a snapshot,” says Esther about this. “The moment during which the photograph is taken gets stretched into a kind of mood.”

​

Details about '17 seconds portraits': 
 

• Medium: photography with technical field camera (1890), negative on photo paper 


• where/when: Exhibition ‘17 seconds’, photography and installation, in cooperation with Hanneke Wetzer & Mo Swillens, Galerie de Kunstpraktijk Veldhoven, 2012


• Exhibition 'landscape and silence', 17 seconds portraits and photographic etching, Kasteel Tongelaar, Mill, 2016

​

​