We are all strangers in a vast cosmogony of worlds, and each season of our lives tells its story through codes and images, memories and traumas. This is what Bieke Depoorter does through her art. Her unique sensitivity to outsiders—those who inhabit places filled with eccentrics and strangers, stargazers and rebels, dreamers and fantasists—invites us to travel and to search for our own reflections, shifting our focal length and perspective.

Bieke Depoorter offers us a draft of a narrative—one that each of us must complete in solitude. It's something like an exercise in empathy. But are we ready to follow her? Can we do it? Can we step into someone else's shoes, sleep in someone else’s bed, wake up under a different ceiling, remain silent in unfamiliar tongues?

Who are we? Where are we going? What are we looking for? Who do we communicate with? How do we remember—and why do we forget? Are we still flipping through the human encyclopedia of mistakes?

Her questions are asked in the present tense. She does not wait for answers. She simply invites us to keep asking.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        Emy Barouh

Bieke Depoorter (b. 1986) is a Belgian photographer who graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent. In 2012, she was nominated for membership in the legendary Magnum Photos agency, where she became a full member in 2016. Her projects are often born from chance encounters and evolve into intimate visual narratives that question the very nature of photography. She is the author of six books and the recipient of numerous international awards, including the Magnum Expression Award, the Larry Sultan Photography Award, and the Prix Levallois. She has also been nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize.

From June 5 to July 20, her exhibition CROSSINGS can be seen at the Sofia City Art Gallery.

In CROSSINGS, Bieke Depoorter presents four of her photographic series:

• I am about to call it a day (2010–2014)
  A photographic narrative of vulnerability and intimacy—images from American homes where Depoorter was welcomed by complete strangers.
• Border Birds (2022)
  A collaboration with Dries Depoorter, using AI software to capture images of birds flying across international borders—a poetic and political commentary on movement and control.
• As it May Be (2011–2017)
  A long-term study of Egypt after the Arab Spring. Depoorter photographs local residents, then collects handwritten reflections by other Egyptians directly on the images—gradually allowing the original photographs to "disappear."
• Blinked Myself Awake (2020–2024)
  A deeply personal and philosophical project devoted to memory, the cosmos, and the way the human gaze seeks answers in the stars.

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