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MONKS & STEEL
thierry falise
Photo-journalist, author
In the old tradition of Belgian surrealism, I have designed an unprecedented encounter, only permitted through an artistic expression, between derelict industrial sites and south east Asian Buddhist monks.
I have created photomontages with pictures of monks from Burma, Thailand and Cambodia taken over two decades of reportages which I have positioned in settings captured in the heart of southern Belgium Sambre Valley where I was born.
This is the encounter of two clichés; the black and rust of abandoned steel mills and collieries, the maroon and saffron of Buddhist monks caught by the lens in situations often unfamiliar with a Western audience.
"It's very beautiful, powerful"... A friend.
"That's nonsense, how dare you do that"... Another friend.
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