Sébastien Van Malleghem (Namur, 1986), is a young and prolific freelance photographer who was this year’s recipient of the Bozar Nikon-Monography Series Award for his work PRISONS (2011-2014) – a thought provoking reportage on the oft stealth living conditions of, in this case, the Belgian penitentiary system. Here, Malleghem shares a few words with us on his award-winning series exhibited in Bozar, and discusses a forthcoming work on drug addiction in Northern France.
Prisons © Sébastien Van Malleghem.
What were your original ideas and intentions when starting to work on your latest series?
I started from scratch with the reportage PRISONS. After my first long term reportage about the Police in Belgium (2008-2012), during the end of it, I began to think about the next part of this reportage: what happens to the people arrested by the police, who go to jail?
What would you say was its starting point?
Finding the right person inside the administration who could give me the go-ahead to enter the Belgian prisons and take pictures inside. I took me almost eight months.
Is there something very specific you’re hoping the series will express/communicate?
I wish people would think more about our current penitentiary system – see it from another angle other than what the press and television shows. I wish they would change their minds a bit when they think about the conditions of our prisons, shown through the pictures. I wish they would understand why and how we treat the mistakes people do.
Can you talk to us about your approach in general?
I search and photograph the reportages I want. I’m a freelancer so I find a subject that interests me, that touch me and that matter. Then I struggle until I gain access to them, and once I’m in I try to disappear, to not disturb anybody. I photograph in Belgium, and mostly in Europe.
How would you say this series fits in with your wider body of work?
It’s a part of it. I don’t think of whether it fits or not. I don’t look at my work as an “artist,” but as a photographer. Showing the truth is the only thing that matters.
Can you talk to us about how you see your own work? How would you describe it?
As photographs of the reality, taken with a subjective look.
What is your preferred medium for exhibiting your work? Book? Solo show? Group exhibition?
With a long-term project such as Police and Prisons, the only way to show them properly, with the full content, is with a book.
Who would you say was instrumental in shaping your work?
Certainly the people who taught me photography.
