INTERVIEW
Who are you?
Jeroen van Dooren.
Where in the world are you from?
The Netherlands from a tiny village called Erp.
What was the first camera you picked up?
Canon Eos 300 before that single use cameras.
Tell us a little more about the picture that you submitted for lofi
I work with fictional characters and this character is named Fred Robeson
Fred is loosely based on the characters Sol Robeson, a mathematician in the film Pi[1]and Fred Madison, a saxophonist in the film Lost Highway.[2] Fred Robeson is a former architect who was born in Pahrump in 1970. While working as an architect he mostly drew houses or parts of buildings. His inspirations are Mies van der Rohe, Daniel Liebeskind and Deconstructionism. He likes to work with glass, steel and concrete. In his free time, he visits exhibitions, concerts and movies. He is a welcome and entertaining guest at the many parties he goes to. He is passionate, sophisticated, intelligent, restless, and a workaholic. He is inseparable from his daughter Lana. Fred Robeson started making art because, in addition to architecture, he was looking for a form in which his imagination, detached from the functionality and rules and regulations within architecture, could flourish. Fred wants to make art that appeals to many people and has a certain beauty.
Fred’s work focuses on the impact the economic and political climate has on our urban and natural surroundings. Cities and nature expand and shrink as a result of war, natural disasters and loss of cultures. More and more, though, cities and nature are being treated as currency in an explosive market for natural resources or real estate value, and their inhabitants are disregarded. Refugee camps are turning into new (temporary) cities, cities are being gentrified and nature is still disappearing at an alarming rate. The fragmentary architectural and natural elements in the work refer to the different transformations our cities and environments are constantly undergoing – building, unbuilding and rebuilding our realm, creating a gentrified world. The works represent possible pasts or possible futures. Fred is slowly bringing sculptural elements into his work, often referring to nature or the materials he used in his work as an architect.
[1] Pi, dir. Darren Aronofsky (New York City: Protozoa Pictures, 1998)
[2] David Lynch, Lost Highway (October films, 1997).
Does it have a name?
Fred Robeson, Atacama Desert.
Most memorable place visited as a photographer?
Chile.
One place you’d like to visit as a photographer?
Chernobyl.
What’s next in the pipeline?
I will be in a publication called: The catalogue of Failures.
Hashtag you most overuse?
Hashtag?? 🙂
Have you (or do you intend to) create a book on your photography?
I am working on a book of prints.
lofipostershow.com 