Your name
Annick Donkers
Place of birth
Turnhout, Belgium
Place where you live now
Belgium
3 words to describe you
Curious, dreamer, intuitive
Why do you take pictures?
Photography is something I have to do, it is part of me. It is a kind of meditation, an escape from the hectic world. It also is an excuse, to enter worlds that I probably wouldn’t enter without my camera.
Where do you get your inspiration?
I can be inspired by exhibitions, movies, articles I read, walking in nature but also observing daily life.
Who are your influences?
The work of the French photographer Luc Delahaye and his book Winterreise helped me to discover color photography. Before I was convinced I wanted to be a black and white photographer.
What determines the subject matter you choose?
While living in Mexico, I was drawn to the more exotic subjects. Now being back in Belgium I want to explore my own identity again. Being away makes me see Belgium in a new light.
What impact would you like your art to have?
I like to inspire people with my photography. When I talk about my pictures and I can motivate others to find their own way, either in photography or something else, that is my goal.
What artwork do you never get bored with?
I never get bored with the paintings of Flemish painter Michael Borremans.
Is there anything you want to add?
Happy to be included in the selection !

UN-IDENTIFIED
Project statement

UN-IDENTIFIED is a series about the belief in alien species and how people construct their own world and perceptions. I am intrigued by how people deal with this belief on a personal, psychological and collective level.

The series is based on a personal experience I had at the age of 10 which triggered my passion for the subject and the curiosity to understand the psychology behind it. The actual idea for the series started after visiting the International UFO Congress in Phoenix. I was impressed by the multitude of people attracted to this event and the secrecy surrounding the theme. It felt like entering a new universe, a subculture where spaceships, contacts by creatures from other dimensions, space travel and abduction are part of the believer’s reality, although seen as strange and with skepticism by outsiders.

Carl Jung once said that modern man projects his inner state onto the heavens. In a cyber culture, full of uncertainties, catastrophes and fears of the unknown, people are looking for a way to define themselves again and feel secure in a group of like-minded people. By giving the unexplainable a divine and supernatural character, they feel hopeful and at the same time chosen to be part of a sacred mission to disclose the truth.

annick donkers
@annickdonkers