Pieter Henket’s images, an encounter between his eyes and the eyes of his characters, form a (celebrity-worshipping) narrative, comprehensible and dead on hip. An autodidact, he already has worked with stars like Angelica Houston, Mary-Kate Olsen, Sir Ben Kingsley, Kristen Stewart, William Hurt and pop phenomenon Lady Gaga for who Henket captured the image of her debut album “The Fame”. In 2010, this iconic image was included in the American Woman exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Fascinated with capturing the image as if it were a still, with all its cinematographic characteristics and thus hard to copy, Henket evokes electric vibes. These images are on the rocky edge but remain mysteriously narrative.
In recent years Henket has focused on portrait photography. These images seem to sum up the New Yorker culture of this decade. With his scenic stripped to a void and daring lightning design, Henket manages to make the faces in the images look casual and accidental, yet knows to represent the essence of the face and to get – with wit – under the skin of celebrity culture.
Illuminating and frightening close, style maintained. Henket works and lives in New York City since 1998.
About ‘CONGO TALES’:
The Odzala National Park in the north-west corner of the Republic of Congo (Brazaville) is one of Africa‘s crown jewels. Covering an area of 13.600 square kliometers, together with the other rainforests in the Congo Basin it has a significant impact on our global climate and therefore on the existence of life. Not only is Odzala the largest and eldest park of the Basin it is also among the most intact, never being logged or over exploited by poachers and hunters.
This is mostly due to a very low population density, consisting of a varied set of cultural entities including the Kota, Bakola and Ba’aka Autochthons often referred to as “pygmees”. The National park is blessed with numerous habitats with populations of gorillas, chimpanzees, forest elephants as well as an abundance of other species. The invitation to capture stories from the Congo for the Tales of Us project has been a true dream come true. Pieter’s first encounter with the enchantments of Africa was in Tanzania. At that time he was not yet aware of the overpowering mystery and the scale of the Congo rainforest and its inhabitants.
Guided by the team with which Henket was working in Congo, he learned about the local customs. They began their collaboration by carefully deciding on which topics to focus and how to combine cultural traditions with the cinematic style of Henket’s portraiture. With so much to see, so many perspectives to illustrate, and so many angles from which to approach this work, it was a challenge to keep a focus on the frame, of stories and myths they had set for themselves. It was important to them to approach this project as a playful encounter between their collective imaginations and fantasy, all the while preserving the dignity of the local inhabitants as well as keeping a clear distance from politics and religion.
As a storyteller, this project had everything Henket could have wished for. Beautiful individuals, a mysterious, hidden place deep in the rainforest and old – almost forgotten-stories of the local people, which their team had spent collecting over the years. They compared themselves to the 19th century Brothers Grimm, recording and compiling local legends and fairy tales, to be kept and re-used by future generations for a sustainable rainforest and its inhabitants.
During the process of their shoot, the pictures gained additional layers as the People of Mbomo – being incredibly welcoming and generous – created new and richer tales and interpretations. The excitement on their part to have their family stories captured in such an “epic” way worked as a tremendous catalyst for Henket’s crew, which included art director and costume desinger Said Abitar.
”Considering the enormous environmental and migration challenges we are facing today I am dedicated to stimulate the indigionous people to regain pride in the qualities of their own histories and environment, through my images. At the same time I hope that by telling their stories through this photographic series will stimulate audiences to learn more about the people of the vast rainforest in the Congo Basin. For me, it is without doubt one of the most beautiful and soul searching collection of works I have made so far.”
