{"id":10021990,"date":"2025-10-22T18:38:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T17:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/melancholia\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T15:03:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T14:03:48","slug":"art-surrealist-photography-david-van-der-leuuw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/art-surrealist-photography-david-van-der-leuuw\/","title":{"rendered":"Melancholia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Text & Interview Dzenana Mujadzic<\/p>\n

David van der Leeuw<\/a> is a Belgian photographer who works with a fine sense for the fleeting. Reflections, shadows, and permeable layers characterize his visual world. But what seems like poetic coincidence is the result of conscious experiments with material, perspective, and technique.<\/p>\n

Chapter<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0Reflections, shadows, and subtle interventions seem central to your imagery. What draws you to these ephemeral elements<\/a>?<\/p>\n

David van der Leeuw<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0I\u2019m drawn to moments that feel like they\u2019re on the verge of disappearing. I like it when an image feels unstable, when it holds tension\u2014when what\u2019s visible is only part of the story, leaving the viewer wondering what is happening. I try to layer and obscure reality\u2014sometimes through glass, water, or mirrors. These elements all create a certain ambiguity, which hopefully encourages the viewer to spend time decoding the image. I guess the short answer is: I try to make it feel more poetic than realistic.<\/p>\n

\"Cinematic,\"Cinematic,<\/p>\n

Chapter<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0You often physically enter your photos through shadows. Can you talk about this performative gesture\u2014is it about presence, authorship, or something more elusive?<\/p>\n

David van der Leeuw<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0I don\u2019t really know, to be honest\u2014I guess it\u2019s a mixture of all of the above. Sometimes it\u2019s a way of including myself in the photo; sometimes it\u2019s simply to add an abstracted layer to a scene that needs something more. Mostly, I think it has to do with creating a sense of mystery in my work\u2014something that introduces a narrative or a human element, but still remains elusive.<\/p>\n

\"Cinematic, \"Cinematic,<\/p>\n

Chapter<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0It appears that, conceptually, there\u2019s a surreal, cinematic tension running through your work\u2014where do you personally draw your inspiration from?<\/p>\n

David van der Leeuw<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0I try to draw inspiration from everything around me, all the time. Sometimes it\u2019s a line from a book, a city, a color, a newspaper article, a friend, a museum visit, or a dream\u2026 Overall, you could say cinema is my main influence\u2014it inspires me in the most complete way, because it\u2019s such a broad art form that encapsulates all the elements I just mentioned: image-making, storytelling, philosophy, music\u2026 there\u2019s just so much in it to be inspired by.<\/p>\n

\"Cinematic, \"Cinematic,<\/p>\n

Chapter<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0While AI is unlocking unprecedented possibilities in image making, there\u2019s something almost magical about working with traditional methods. Could you also share a bit about the technical aspects behind how your images come to life?<\/p>\n

David van der Leeuw<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0I try not to get too attached to a certain technique\u2014I always aim to experiment and do things differently. I shoot with old analog cameras, digital ones, and even my iPhone<\/a>. I photograph through different materials\u2014glasses, fabric, whatever happens to be around me. Sometimes I use props to alter reality, but everything happens in-camera; I don\u2019t use double exposures. In post, I sometimes crop images radically, reprint and rephotograph them, or remove entire color ranges. There\u2019s never just one formula\u2014I always try to experiment along the way.<\/p>\n

ARTICLE FIRST PUBLISHED IN CHAPTER \u2116XII \u00bbSIMPLICITY\u00ab<\/a> \u2014 SUMMER 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Text & Interview Dzenana Mujadzic David van der Leeuw is a Belgian photographer who works with a fine sense for the fleeting. Reflections, shadows, and permeable layers characterize his visual world. But what seems like poetic coincidence is the result of conscious experiments with material, perspective, and technique. Chapter\u00a0 \u00a0Reflections, shadows, and subtle interventions seem central to your imagery. What draws you to these ephemeral elements? David van der Leeuw\u00a0 \u00a0I\u2019m drawn to moments that feel like they\u2019re on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":10021982,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[534,336,348],"tags":[358,346],"class_list":["post-10021990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-articles","category-latest","tag-kunst-en","tag-portfolio-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10021990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10021990"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10021990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10021994,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10021990\/revisions\/10021994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10021982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10021990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10021990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10021990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}