Pierre Boogaerts

Boogaerts, Pierre

 Pierre Boogaerts, photographer (b at Brussels, Belgium 30 Oct 1946). He moved to Canada in 1972, and established himself in Montréal the following year with extended stays in New York City. Working initially as a painter, he started using photography in his art in 1971. Generally structured according to methods of conceptual art, Boogaerts's photographic work has been concerned with the opposition of nature (the organic) and culture (the synthetic), and with the camera as a subjective tool for recording reality. Series include Références: plantation et jaun bananier (1972-75), "Synthétisation" du ciel (1973-75), New York NY (artist's book published by Éditions Parachute, Montréal, 1977) and Série écran (1976-78), where the blue sky acts as a 2-dimensional, abstract "screen" of colour between urban architectural masses. Coins de rules (Pyramides) - N Y 1978/79 - Street Corners (Pyramids) (also published as a book in collaboration with MUSÉE D'ART CONTEMPORAIN DE MONTRÉAL) is an extensive documentation of approximately 300 photographs (presented individually or as montages) of Manhattan's street corners, obtained by flattening the cityscape around the dark, pyramidal shape of a building's summit photographed against the light.

Aside from exhibiting his work internationally, Boogaerts has written several essays on photography and visual perception. His last body of work (1984-90) was based on slide montages attempting a visual "reconstruction" of the subject (plant or landscape) through a number of partial views and photographic fragments. Having ceased his photographic practice in 1990, Boogaerts donated his whole oeuvre, negatives and related documents to the CANADIAN MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY in Ottawa. In 2002, the CMCP mounted an exhibition of the artist's work entitled "Pierre Boogaerts: Reality, Vision, Image."