Interview Frederique Peckelsen
Frederique Peckelsen, 31 years old, grew up in Katlijk (Friesland). She always looks for environments that feel grand, wild and overwhelming, only to find stillness and serenity there. It is a quest for the sublime and the beautiful.
How would you describe your style?
"I always look for environments that feel overwhelming. I am actually always looking for places that put me in my emotions. Often there is a sense of loneliness or being lost in my images. It is a kind of search for the sublime and the beautiful."
Who/what is your greatest source of inspiration?
"As a child, my sister and I could spend hours flipping through art history books and old folkloric, illustrated books that were in my mother's closet. I was always intrigued by the line work and composition of those illustrations, and the mystical and dark of the paintings from Romanticism. Especially Caspar David Friedrich, a Romantic painter, has greatly influenced my work as a photographer. His works are often also about loneliness, stillness, great nature and man as a spectator of the whole."
"I shoot an image because I am suddenly overcome by the beauty or violence of a certain place."
Why did you choose the images on Kiekie Art?
"I was actually looking for two images that are both universal and symbolic. In addition, the images had to tell a story, and also be a really good reflection of my spherical photography."
What is the most important lesson you learned from photography?
"I especially learned what influence landscape has on people, and how, for example, their culture and religion are partly formed from it. Because I am constantly looking for remote places to photograph, I come to places where nature still has a lot of influence. has on everyday life. People there have not yet armed themselves against the fierceness of nature, as we do in cities, but live even more with nature. I find it very interesting to see how people have found explanations in the form of gods and rituals that match the obstacles nature throws at them and opportunities it offers, but also how all of that has translated into the choice of clothing and adornment, so I think photography has taught me to see things in place a greater context, and make connections."
What plans do you have for the future?
"Until now my work has mainly been my own journey of discovery and my relationship to the great world. In the future I want to work more consciously from a concept. Now the moment at which I shoot a photo often depends on what I come across I shoot an image because I'm suddenly overcome by the beauty or violence of a certain place. That has its charm, but I never know what I'm going to make, or when I'll shoot a good image. That can also be very frustrating When I work more from a concept, I can edit my work more and tell even more specific stories by making series."
