Yves Ullens de Schooten’s photographic approach is aimed at tracking down forms of light. These lights radiate from day to day objects and experience. By instinct, the artist captures them and restores their energy and colors, while refusing to adulterate them with any graphic palette effects. What captivates him, is to grasp the intensity of light inherent in every situation, object or landscape (even the most common ones), and disclose its subtlety and force in a simple way.

His photos are almost paintings, responding to the same aesthetic quest and reflecting the same intensity. They are an invitation to discover and revel in pure visual sensations. They also involve a metaphysical vision of the subject which emerges through the prism of light. This boldly positive and optimistic vision of reality is left to everyone’ s direct and unconstrained interpretation, for everyone has in his or her intuition the tools to read through this abstract representation.

In his works, Yves Ullens de Schooten is not trying to convey an esoteric vision, but to offer visual sensations and arouse vibrations that do one good, as they brighten up daily life, and by stripping off its banal appearance, give it a new dimension. Yes, his photos are definitely beaming, not only in that they depict light, but also shed light upon us and through some sort of magic manage to make us happy.

Bernard Drion du Chapois