foto: Ola
The title of Duane Michals’ photograph This Photograph is my Proof (1967) is catalyst to my own photographic journey. It reminds me of how photographs, much unlike memories, can hold evidence of how my friends and lovers perceived me. They are proof of the trust people placed in me, in front of my lens. That they allowed themselves to be seen by me, vulnerable, honest, emotional, naked.
In a way, all of them are diary excerpts, a testament to our intimacy. And while connections fade and friends and lovers come and go and the memories of love and appreciation erode under the occasional torrents of self-doubt, the picture doesn’t lie, and even if it does, that is my truth recorded.
New book Testament out now.
Ruben Binnendijk (NL, 1985)
Lives and works in Vienna.