Photographer Pie Aerts on capturing beauty

What kind of sentiment does a book evoke?
I’m always intrigued by scent. I love the word ‘biblichor’, a word that describes the smell that belongs to old books, the smell of entering a bookstore with old books. I like particular odors, of old and new books. It’s one of the reasons behind my love for books. When I started with taking pictures, in the early days of internet, photography still was analogue. It’s hard to imagine, but if you wanted to know what something looked like, you couldn’t just Google it. So I already bought photo books at a young age. I would go to the MENDO store, which I found because I was looking for Steve McCurry books. I would visit the store, buy a new book and go home, until I talked to Joeri. We found out that we were neighbors and stayed in touch. Eventually, that led to the publications of my pictures in books like Depart, Streets of Paris and Streets of London. When MENDO suggested to create a photography book with nothing but my pictures, it felt like a natural next step. It was always one of my dreams, publishing a book with my photographs that would be for sale at MENDO. And now, here we are: it’s not only a book that is for sale at MENDO, it is made with MENDO and for sale all over the world.

You have a large online presence. What does social media mean to you?
I’m very visible on social media, but that has a certain shelf life. It’s very volatile. Social media conditioned us to ‘like’. Within few seconds, people want to be entertained and fascinated, otherwise they’ll just scroll ahead without that like. If one cannot consume something immediately, one easily swipes on. Why would someone read an article if the headline will suffice? Why read a caption underneath an Instagram post, if you can look at the picture above it? That’s the world we live in. Of course, it’s nice that a lot of people are following me, but it’s not something that makes me proud. Social media started off as a way of showing what you’re doing on a day to day basis – I’ve outgrown that principle, because I’m more and more working on long-term projects.

Hence ‘Tales from the Roads Less Traveled’, a tangible book with your photography. Why is that transition from online to offline important to you?
With the book, I hope to move people back to a more laid-back tempo. That people take a moment and sit down, to give some attention to something – my work in this case. That people take it in, put it down, and pick it up later on, to continue from where they have left it the last time they have browsed through it. To fully digest the contents, instead of mindless scrolling and liking. Some time ago I read a quote by another photographer: “I don’t want to have my photography featured on Hypebeast and Instagram, I want my pictures to be in books and museums,” he said. That really got me thinking: what is the next step? I now tend to make my work more tenable. Regarding the book, I love the idea of creating something that you can still hold in your hands years from now.

What does a picture, printed on paper mean to you?
As a photographer, there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing your photography printed on paper. There’s no digital medium that can rival a photography page – not even a CNN or National Geographic web page. To hold something that is carefully created and designed, in my case in close partnership with MENDO and teNeues, is very dear to me. A page that holds something that comes out of a camera is more to me than just a file that consists of pixels.

 

Do you think about eventual prints when you’re taking pictures?
Always. Although I take pictures with a digital camera, I have a close connection with the printed end product. To me, that end result never is a picture on a website. I always paint a picture of what the printed copy would look like. Something that people want to take their time for, whether that is in a publication or on a wall.

You are very aware of your impact and influence as a photographer. Which message do you want to pass on with this book?
I feel a certain responsibility to be “a voice of our planet”. I really feel like the stories that we tell should give both the places I go to and the people I meet a voice. Many of the stories in the book are very relevant, they show how the world is doing anno 2019. By telling stories of people in Rajasthan, in Bolivia, in Botswana, the viewer gets binding and feels connection to new people and places. People will only fight for what they see and understand. It is that deeper understanding that I’d like to create as a visual storyteller. I hope that the book makes people think, about disappearing cultures, animals and landscapes, for instance. The title of the book is ‘Tales from the Road Less Traveled’. I think the stories really are tales – they’re not journalistic reports or anything like that. I’m an esthetic photographer, and not a photojournalist. I could never be a war photographer. I’m always on the lookout to convey and capture beauty, and I feel like I’m more of a storyteller than a photographer.

Which photography books do you often open up for inspiration?
I could talk hours and hours about photography and photography books that inspire me. To me, books are the number one source of inspiration. It’s very hard to just name a few favorites, but let me try to name a couple of books that I open and browse a lot. One of those books that keeps on inspiring me is ‘The Decisive Moment’ of Henri Cartier-Bresson, which boasts black and white pictures taken in the 50’s and 60’s. It’s hard to get your hands on this book, but I’d say it is one of the best books I’ve ever seen. Another book is ‘The Americans’ by Robert Frank, a Swiss photographer who traveled through the United Stated in the 50’s. Mind blowing. A great book that I browse just as much as ‘The Decisive Moment’. I also love ‘The Color Work’ by Vivian Maier. Not only are her pictures mind boggling, there is also so much mysticism that surround her work and her life. Other photographers who play a big role in my own development are the aforementioned Steve McCurry, Sebastiao Salgado and the amazing street photographer Joel Meyerowitz.