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| Pascal Baetens |
(1963)
After a traditional education, Pascal chose to develop his artistic creativity by becoming a photographer. Since 1994, he has been creating portraits, fashion, nudes as well as travel assignments for editorial, commercial and private clients, including Elle, Men's Health, FHM and Maxim.
His collections of subtle nudes have been published in several art books 'The Fragile Touch', 'Allegro Sensibile' ('The Art of Nude Photography' USA-edition), 'Heavenly Girls' ('Heavenly Beauties' USA-edition), 'A Pocketful of Nudes', and the how-to-book 'Nude Photography, the Art and the Craft'. His work has also been featured in various notable books on modern photography and exhibited throughout Asia, Europe and North America.
Pascal has interviewed photographers such as Avedon, Bitesnich, Dunas, Lindbergh, Maroon and Witkin and has curated various exhibitions.
In 2008, Pascal received the title of Master Qualified European Photographer, the highest recognition given by the Federation of European Professional Photographers (FEP).
Pascal Baetens has an extensive program of lectures and workshops. He lives and works at Salve Mater, the former psychiatric hospital/monastery in Lovenjoel, Belgium.
1963 born on 20th of July in Louvain, Belgium
1986 Master in Law (KU Leuven)
1989 Master in Political & Social Sciences, spec. International Relations & Peace Research (KU Leuven)
1990 Diplôme d'Etudes Européennes (UC Louvain-la-Neuve; Panteios Athens)
A-Trainer Alpine Skiing
Studies photography with Stefanos Paschos (Athens, Greece)
1993 Member of IFSI (International Federation of Ski Instructors)
1994 Practitioner in Advanced Psycho-Dynamic Systems (IHD, Gent)
Degree in Photography (Central Jury, Narafi)
Establishes himself as independent photographer
1998 Member of the NVBF (Nationale Vereniging van Beroepsfotografen)
2005 Getuigschrift Pedagogische Bekwaamheid (paedagogic degree)
2006 Qualified European Photographer
2008 Master Qualified European Photographer
2008-10 Board member of FEP (Federation of European Professional Photographers)
2012 Landesskilehrer 1 (Austrian Ski Association WSSV-ÖSV)
BOOKS
"Pascal Baetens' photography of nudes is critically lauded. Famous for seeking out the woman on the street rather than the super-styled and highly paid supermodel, Belgian Baetens photographs beautiful women in everyday settings. Using industrial environments and natural settings as backdrops, the natural curves of the women's bodies are superbly contrasted, revealing beauty in the superb colour and black and white images.
This new book in the Pocketful series features more than 200 beautiful photographs from one of the world's most inspired artistic photographers."
A Pocketful of Nudes
A tribute to my modelsThis book contains photographs of 100 young women. Some photos were shot following commercial assignments or during workshops, but most of the sessions were just for fun. In many cases, I had met the girls coincidently somewhere, and somehow, they inspired me. A number of the girls had no prior experience with modelling or photography. Models posing naked are usually more at ease without a third party present, allowing the trust that exists between the model and the photographer to develop as the session unfolds. In most of the sessions for this book, there were no make-up artists or stylists, no heavy or complex equipment; just my model, my camera and me, in an authentic setting. And no Photoshop retouching of the photographs afterwards. My invitation to the models was to express their emotions of that moment, rather than showing a beautiful but hollow façade. Some felt happy and sexy, others shy or melancholic, a few even sad or depressed. And they showed it! They each lived a day with the camera, which captured the natural flow of events as they transpired, rather than producing preconceived ideas and stylised poses. Thus the dirty feet, as the soil of an abandoned monastery is seldom clean, and the messy hair, as you don’t control it constantly when you are playing and running around.
I hope you enjoy discovering the images as much as I enjoyed making them. And to all the girls: a big thank you for allowing me to share our moments with the world!
Pascal Baetens
"In this absorbing and inspiring book Pascal Baetens reveals how to create stunning images, whether you are working in a basic room with just a camera or in a fully equipped photographic studio. He shows how to exploit every opportunity and overcome limitations - of equipment, models, location, and budget - and to achieve outstanding results [...] A final section introduces 10 photographers from around the world who are renowned for their nude images. Each has created a picture especially for the book and these are accompanied by fascinating reportage-style storyboards that take you behind the scenes of each shoot. They explain how the image was achieved: the concept, preparation, and equipment, as well as how each photographer works with his or her model to achieve the shot they are aiming for."
Nude Photography, the Art and the Craft has been translated into German, Norvegian, Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese.
Belgian photographer Baetens is a riveting talent. His nudes are absolutely stunning and his original composition and style put him amongst the elite photographers in the genre. (...) His beautiful subjects radiate in the wide variety of settings that Baetens shoots in. (...) It is truly a glimpse of what heaven must be like." (Michelle7.com, USA)
Allegro sensibile
When one is asked to contribute a preface or an introduction to a book, it is expected that one will discuss in great detail the work of the author. n this situation I would not know what to write, as I myself have photographed the nude for over twenty-five years and I have never been succinct at talking about the work – thank goodness I am capable of expressing myself with the camera instead of the pen!
Pascal Baetens is a good guy – affable, engaging and sincere. He’s very interested in photography and has a good grasp on the history of the art/craft as well. I find in most young photographers a lack of interest in learning about what came before them but in Baetens’ case he has done his homework. He writes on the subject, he reports for various magazines and is both knowledgeable and personable, two essential qualities for a good photographer. He organizes photo festivals and exhibits for other photographers as well as for himself. He participates in photography.
As I do, I believe Pascal Baetens lives and breathes photography. It is essential for his life - his oxygen. This is the first qualification for greatness if greatness is to be achieved. One must be possessed - obsessed - driven - willing to spend all of one's waking hours in its pursuit - and be perhaps slightly mad. While I'm not sure of the latter in his case, I am sure of it in myself! This may be a prescription for artists in all disciplines.
I've met and become acquainted with many photographers - hundreds in fact, and I know it when I see it. Baetens is on the way. His work reveals energy, a discipline and a love for his subject. Of course his images are well composed and the lighting is beautiful but there is also that something else - that essential something that you either have or you don't - something you can't learn. That something is the ability to reach your subject - create one's vision and have the complicity with the subject. I see this in Pascal Baetens' work. He communicates with his subjects - controls the situation and has the ability to bring his communication with his subject into the image. This is an intangible!
I'll be watching his work in the coming years. He stands a good chance of making his mark on photography.
Jeff Dunas
Los Angeles December 2001
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"Pascal Baetens, a brilliant young photographer from Belgium, places his nudes against a decaying industrial backdrop, which provides a stark metaphor for the poignant vulnerability of youth. His traditional love affair with light pervades this fragile world, and leaves behind images that are both consuming and compelling. However, a lingering examination of the artist and his subjects hints at a more subtle relationship, one that is based on a profound mysterious and eternal complicity."
The Fragile Touch is Pascal's first book. It was originally published in 1999 and has recently been re-released in two editions.
The fragile touch
It seems inappropriate to place an introduction between the viewer and the photographs of Pascal Baetens. He, after all, puts nothing between the viewer and the girls. By which I don’t mean just that they are naked, though for the most part they delightfully are. I mean that he doesn’t place himself between them and us. He doesn’t impose on them or on the viewer. His vision doesn’t obtrude.
Pascal Baetens was born in Belgium in 1963. He was educated at what he calls ‘a monks’ school’. He was given his first camera when he was 11. He studied law and politics at university. He has written about his adolescent dreams of love. His work has been shown in exhibitions and published in magazines throughout Europe.
The bare facts of his biography are, though, if he won’t mind my saying so, irrelevant. He is the quietest, the most unintrusive, the least assertive and egotistical of photographers. There are those who are immediately and unmistakably recognisable. We know what to expect. We find their vision and fantasies interesting or not as they accord with our own. Pascal Baetens lets us find or discover our own. The effect, as in many of his photographs, is characteristically spontaneous.
He has written that his intention is to portray an emotion, not just a pretty body or fantasy or moment in time. And he says that he has succeeded when the viewer recognises the emotion. In fact, he goes further than that. The emotions he portrays are not manufactured or imposed by or for himself or the viewer. ‘Look lustful. Look available. Look vulnerable. Look shy. Look sexy.’ The emotions come from the girls themselves. Some l ook us straight in the eye. Some don’t. Some do sometimes. They are, in fa ct, like girls you see in life and as you see them in life except that, as they might be in your mind but are not in the street, they have nothing on. Of course, it is not quite as simple as that. Look, for example, at the compositions, the framing of the girls in the space, the apparent accidents of light and shade. A girl leans nonchalantly, apparently all unaware of what she is offering or the thoughts she might provoke. It is as though she has been caught there, not put there. At first sight it is artless, apparently unconsidered. Apparently. But of course not. Richard Cook (extracts from his introduction of the English version of ‘The Fragile Touch’, published by The Erotic Print Society, London, GB, 1999)
Pascal Baetens. Verhalenverteller. Zijn stof oogt simpel. Zijn ingrediënten zijn inderdaad vaak weinig meer dan een naakt meisje in een verlaten fabriekshal. Toch klinkt zijn ‘click’ beslist anders dan die van u of mij. Het verschil? Die schuilt wellicht in de volgende anekdote. Ooit legde men de grote Coco Chanel een jurkje voor – gekocht op de markt voor een paar ordinaire franken – dat na een eerste blik precies één van haar peperdure haute couture creaties was. Chanel keek ernaar – minachtend, hooguit een fractie van een seconde –en sprak toen de woorden: ‘Inderdaad, nèt één van mijn jurkjes, en toch weer niet.’ Dat verschil nu, dat verschil in emotie tussen echt en onecht, dat waarachtige, spat van het boek van Pascal Baetens. Het lijkt allemaal simpel, maar het is het niet.Zijn kracht is het Indirecte. In tegenstelling tot pornografie, dat driften direct stilt, hebben zijn beelden een vertraagde werking in zich. Ze blijven –soms ongemerkt – rondspoken, om zich vervolgens, in zo’n even mooi als prachtig onverwacht moment, weer in alle kracht en felheid te manifesteren, in welke donkere kamer van het hoofd ook. Alzo wordt wederom bewezen dat erotiek de belangrijkste ‘drive’ in dit leven is.Peter Yeh, hoofdredacteur Penthouse Nederland (uit zijn inleiding van ‘The fragile touch’, uitgegeven bij Foto Art, Brugge, Belgium, 1999)
