Angélique Droessaert: Artistic Photography Adartphoto.com


"You don't take a photograph, you make it." Ansel Adams

I would add: "You do not take a photograph, you craft it."
I prefer operating in the artistic mode in most aspects of my life, from cooking, to writing, to decorating, to of course the crafting of Fine Art. When I garden, I paint with colors and soul. When i am on a photoshoot I take some time to get to know my subject, be that a landscape, a person, or an object. I look at it from as many angles as I can, analyse color and light and spatial relationships. I try to see the hidden beauty,a nd play our what if scenarios, sometimes in my mind only, sometimes by moving, displacing or playing with light and changing setting on my camera. I use multiple media to fashion a piece of art. Taking a photograph from being just a photograph to turn it into something that is made uniquely by me, rendering my vision, something that stands out, that makes you look twice and is very pleasing to me and hopefully to others, is a skill and ambition that I continue to refine. I love beauty and prefer to work bringing out beauty or revealing it when it is hidden or passed over. Like rusting iron, dilapidated facades, weeds, buildings falling apart,

My current work is free lance and by commission:

I work with clients and art appraisers on request, documenting fine art collections and antiques for the purpose of inventory, marketing, insurance, creating a personal portfolio, a business venture, or personal project. ...
I also specialize in documenting houses, estates or B&Bs for a personal portfolio or for marketing and advertising.
My personal approach sums up seeing BEAUTY in nature, artifacts, travels, every day objects in daily living. I have a particular fondness for textures and history as I witness in old cities: My first love was painting, drawing and working with watercolors. My love of color and textures can be ably expressed with digital photography and my creativity has found new ways of expression with the modern advances in technology in digital photography and post production use of software: Photography translates into the "Art of writing with light," and I write. I am an artist, a writer, a poet. Through the use of my camera and my vision I create and express the seen, the unseen, and a dream.

I got all the educational and academic credentials in my background as well: A first education in Fine Arts growing up in my father's atelier who is a well known painter in Europe; then a formal training in graphic design, interior design and fine arts. Lots of darkroom experience in B&W. Later a BA in Fine Arts, a Master's in Modern Languages from UT; followed by a PhD in Romance Philology and Medieval Romance Literature from UNC, Chapel Hill; included are some 20 years of teaching High School and College French language and literatures,Spanish, and occasionally Latin and German ... And back to being a poet and an artist...


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Currently, I work on a series of projects and collections with a view to gallery exhibits, and gathering materials for publishing.

--Provence or Tuscany: collection of “Windows and Shutters,” “door knockers” across Europe.
--Gardens, close up of flowers, landscapes etc., are another area of predilection.
-- A cultivated special interest in collecting textures; Current projects “Patinas” “ Reflections” I am exploring with mirrored images, .. I collect these works in preparation for eventual exhibits....
-- I frequently travel to Europe, Germany, Italy and France and I collect series and materials for publications and books. Throughout my work is a search for capturing the beautiful, nature, light, and its effects and reflections on objects, architecture, colors, and man made structures.

I love to share the awe I feel for the magnificent beauty of nature in all its vastness and in its most minute visions, in rich, deep, lush, vibrating color. The inspiration of impressionism combined with observations of vibrant color around the Mediterranean and especially in Florence and Venice in Italy, and along the Côte d'Azur and in the Provence (France) deeply influence my color palette. There is a uniquely different, mysterious and vibrant color scheme all around the Mediterranean and the play of light and shade, their warmth and natural beauty never cease to fascinate me. These locations are also a special place to visit stunning art museums, and the works of the great masters of the Renaissance as well as the more modern works of Picasso, Chagall, Matisse seen in their native environment are an inspiration.

I work on two ongoing projects: “Americana: By the Roadside,” documenting old houses in the South, especially in North Carolina where I live, and Southern landscapes. "Patinas" documents and puts a unique focus on the detail in weathering, natural decomposition, growths, chemical transformations and illustrating the beauty often unseen and unobserved of these rich micro universes.

I take special orders and work for clients by commission:
-- Special documentation of personal antiques collections, art works, both public and private
-- Create photographic port folios and inventories of art work, antiques, etc; for insurance purposes.
-- Documenting works of art, working with appraisers,
-- Photographic staging and artistic presentation of real estate: artistic view of the details of a house, B&B, hotels etc;
- I also provide services of restoration of old photographs and family heirlooms, and edit/restore, on demand, special family photos.


Please contact me at angelique@adartphoto.com and adroessaert@gmail.com