Last Seasons Photowalks

The club organized a  “long afternoon” in Ostend viewing some of the exhibitions and other displays at this event. 

On 16 April 2023 a group of about fifteen members of Viewfinders enjoyed a day out, taking some photos in sunny Tournai and then visiting a wonderful photo exhibition (and taking some more photos) in Mouscron. 

The day started for most of the group near the Cathedral of Tournai. We then dispersed in the centre of Tournai, to find subjects to photograph according to each person’s preferences and style, with rendez-vous set in a nice restaurant in the Grand Place before driving to Mouscron.

The Tournai Cathedral is a magnificent building and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. Unfortunately, the cathedral was seriously damaged by a tornado in August 1999 and has been under restoration works ever since, so that some of its most beautiful parts are still inaccessible to the public. There were, however, some good possibilities for (very) low light photography. Outside the cathedral, everyone found interesting subjects for street photography and some architecture, including the new version of the Pont des Trous (the “bridge of holes”), which had been inaugurated just the previous day. The bridge was “deconstructed” and then re-built in the same place leaving more space for boats to pass under it.

After a very nice lunch we drove 25 km to Mouscron and, more specifically, to the old swimming pool located on Place Charles de Gaule, which is now an art gallery. There we visited, for the “finissage”, the exhibition “Sepia Imaginarium”, with photos by Bruno d’Alimonte, a Belgian photographer and photography teacher based in Brussels (https://bruno-dalimonte.be).

This was a very unusual exhibition, in which the photographer had taken full advantage of the location, an old swimming pool, to present his black & white photos as if in a development bath, so familiar to film photographers. Twenty-four photos were carefully positioned at the bottom of the empty swimming pool, and could be seen either from above, from the two levels of changing booths around the pool, or going down into the pool, walking around the images and observing them much closer. 

Overall an excellent day, with nice weather, a great group of friends/photographers and a very unusual photo exhibition! We ended the day in a very pleasant outdoor café in Mouscron before getting in the cars and driving back to Brussels with lots of nice photos in our memory cards. 

Text by Joaquim Capitao

A group of members of Viewfinders met in Nivelles in the evening of 27 October for a night visit to the Rossel Printing Company, where the newspaper Le Soir is printed, as well as several other national or regional newspapers. The visit started at 22:30, to be able to watch the printing process in full speed, preparing the newspapers for distribution before dawn. The guided visit was very complete, from the storage room for paper (rolls of paper weighing up to more than 1.5 tons, mover around by robots), through the printing presses and up to the packaging of newspapers and loading onto trucks for transport to different parts of Belgium.

Photographic opportunities were abundant and the lighting in the different rooms was good, allowing us to photograph without going to very high ISO values. The main challenge was the very high speed at which everything moved, with newspapers or parts of them being transported at speeds up to about 40 km/h.

Overall a very interesting visit, from the point of view of general education, to see how a newspaper is printed and prepared for distribution in 2022, but also from the photographic point of view.

Text by Joaquim Capitao

Borgloon is a little town in Limburg, not far from Sint Truiden and Hasselt.

One of the most famous sights in Belgium is the artistic interpretation of a church build completely from metal, and called “Reading between the Lines”. A popular and photogenic spot, especially in the evening.

A dozen members of the Viewfinders Club had a very enjoyable walk around the rose garden on the last Sunday in June. The moated Castle dates from 1515 and was remodeled as a country residence by the Flemish count Charles Vital Alexandre Coloma in the 1700’s. It fell into disrepair in the 1980’s and was bought by the Flemish government in 1987 who completely restored it with the rose garden added in 1995. There are over 3000 different species of rose from 26 different countries grouped into individual national gardens. Although roses are the main attraction, there are many features in the gardens reflecting the national identities: from Japanese snow cranes to hexagonal pillars of the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. A busy Sunday made the photogenic castle and gardens tricky to photograph but provided subjects for observational shoots of families and children relaxing.

After two hours wandering around the garden enjoying the roses and their perfumes, we had a picnic in the shade of one of the big chestnuts supported by supplies from the Deli supermarket opposite the entrance. 

Highly recommended and easy to reach in Sint-Peters-Leeuw by car or bus. Macro lenses or those with a short focusing distance are a must. As most of the roses are bushes, something to kneel on or a tripod are good to have. A bottle of water can provide not only refreshment, but those infamous water droplets to add sparkle to the rose.

Text by Alan Waldern

The weather gods were pleased the day we went to visit Ghent.  Eduardo had chosen a route that took us past several of the city’s main attrac?ons, giving great opportunities for architecture, street-photography and even capturing the street art in a specially dedicated alleyway. There was something for everyone!

One complete surprise for me was the new library “De Krook”. Seemingly built from interlocking steel frames that have been stretched heavenward, it offered some potentially magnificent perspective shots from the empty square in front of it ... until the fire brigade arrived and filled the square with brightly coloured vehicles. Nothing sinister – seems they were on a training run, but amusing to watch as compensation for the missed opportunity.

While Brugge is famous for its renaissance refinement, Ghent is rather more rugged, almost medieval in an intriguing sort of way. Next stop, the castle of  Geeraard van Gent, for reasons we shall only guess at also called “Geeraard the devil” (Eeek!), though the knight in question never actually lived there. Still, impressive.

Eduardo’s further route took us past the sturdy old buildings that form the centre – the cathedral, the “Belfort” (literally, belfry, and the home of a golden dragon that gave his name to a well know local beer...) and the Sint Niklaaskerk. Cuddling up to these noble edifices is the new “stadshal” – a covered square with no outside walls, a little like a market. All nicely photogenic.

Passing through the Graffiti Street to visit the Friday market (active) and the “Dulle Griet” cannon (thankfully, inactive), our thoughts turned to food, so after a brisk walk through the charming “Patershol” area and around the outside of the famous Count’s Castle, we all got our knees under a table for a very enjoyable meal.

Post-dinner perambulation took us to the famous Gent post-office building (now a shopping centre inside), with blue hour announcing our arrival at the picturesque “graslei” for some of the classic views of Gent. A short stop for a beer closed a very enjoyable photo trip – for which a very big thanks to Eduardo for his planning and guiding! 

Text by Alun Foster

On Sunday 29 August 2021, members had the opportunity to visit a photo exhibition while going on photo walk in the Condroz, above Huy. Some 15 photographers and 5 collective groups were exposing along the trail (the Ravel) and in former factories or workshops. 

Thanks to Anne-Christine for organizing this visit: "The “Xe Biennale de photographie en Condroz » took us three (Marci, Kathy and Anne-Christine) through a succession of varied landscapes and testimonies of the economic industrial activity in the beautiful Hoyoux valley, while offering us the perspective of artists on these spaces.

Had we had bikes, we could have visited the whole exhibition but by foot, we did only half (7 km), starting from the former sheet metal workshop in Marchin to Modave. The visit of a former stone sawmill on the way was also very interesting."

One of the last photowalks to close the 2020-21 season was in the city of  Namur on Saturday 19th June. Starting at the train station, we walked along the old city streets, the two rivers, the Citadel and visited a photography exhibition by Nick Hannes. It was great to meet again some fellow Viewfinders, and even meeting some members in person for the first time.  Here are some photos from the day. 

On August 29 2020 we had out first photo-walk of the season with a visit to the Meise Botanical Garden. Hard to believe, it was our first non-virtual encounter with other fellow Viewfinders since our last meeting at the Swedish Church on February 19. Check your emails, more photo-walks will be organized in the coming weeks.

The weekend of 27 & 28th April 2019 saw a merry band of Viewfinders make their way to the historic yet modern city of Lille. A highly entertaining (if cloudy) photographic time was had by all, with time to enjoy both the modern and ancient parts of the city with time to enjoy a delightful dinner and a bit of blue-hour (despite the clouds) and nigh-time photography.  

It included a visit to an architecturally beautiful swimming pool from the early 20th century at Roubaix, host to a surprisingly extensive museum of art, with the very photogenic swimming pool itself offering a host of statues seeming to speak to us from across time: Greco-Roman style to modern day and a delightful mix of everything in between. Paintings, mostly 19th to 20th century, also adorned the well-appointed halls of this surprisingly extensive site.  A temporary photography exhibition by a contemporary Algerian photographer Naime Merabet (“Fenêtre sur l’Algérie”) was also on display,

Viewfinders was not the only group to think of taking in the sights of St Gilles on a Sunday morning in October. As we gathered at the Hotel Hannon, another group were setting up a table outside this masterpiece of the Art Nouveau - right IN THE WAY! An easy way to annoy photographers on a cold, grey morning. Well, we got the better of the deal. They may have had printed sheets to work from, but we had the advantage of an expert guide, in the form of Paula Cagli, who had kindly planned and organized the walk. 

Paula came armed with a good map and a folder full of facts but, more importantly, an excellent eye for architecture and a head full of anecdotes. I hadn’t appreciated before how  much of a smorgasbord the art nouveau period had really been, with the competing views of Horta (curling metal, glass and uncomfortable interiors learnt at the royal glasshouses in Laeken) and Paul Hankar (murals, verticals, but more livable inside), amongst others. Not to mention those circular windows from the fashion for things Japanese that was all the rage at the time, or the nods to Italian architecture to cater for the tastes of the patron. 

But the one factoid that really was a revelation, an ‘of course!’ moment after 15 years of living in Brussels, was Paula’s passing comment that explained the trois-en-filade curse of Brussels houses. These elegant, but narrow, houses with dark interior rooms. Hotel Hannon is an imposing building on a corner plot. These were only for the richest folk, Paula explained, because house taxes used to be based on the width of the facade, so corner plots in effect paid double. Aha!

In spite of the overcast skies, many photos were taken. The advice in such conditions was to focus on details. And indeed at one stage we looked like the charge of the lightroom  brigade trying to get into the Musée Horta before it opened (see photo). I’m sure we’ll see some examples coming up in future newsletters and meetings. 

So we have to be thankful that Brussels had such an affluent period when building an art nouveau exterior, at least, was the thing to do. And that these neglected buildings were saved from demolition a generation or two ago. And that Viewfinders has talented volunteers to help us appreciate the legacy.

A photo album from this visit is available here.

Text by David Marsh