My name is Tijs Hostyn. I was in my mid-twenties when I discovered photography. After these first real camera experiences, I was immediately hooked.
In the beginning, photography gave me a way to capture what interested or excited me. Now it's a way to translate the love I feel for urban environments and their history.
The curiousness is still there. So on the one hand my images are a journal of places I’ve been, capturing cities how they want to be seen. You can see these images as an ode to the city and its people.
On the other hand I spend a lot of time on more specific projects closer to home. In these projects I try to dig deeper. Right now, I’m working a long term project about the vestiges around the city of Antwerp, Belgium. Before World War I, the Belgian state invested heavily in the creation of military structures all around the city of Antwerp. A whole system of trenches, bunkers, artillery posts and forts was created. While Antwerp would eventually be occupied, the German military would continue to use and develop some of these defenses during the war. The Forts that were built are still pretty well preserved today. I’m going back to these forts to make a photographic account of these structures today.
Another project I’m working on is a photo series about the city of Vilvoorde. To outsiders this city seems to be very unappealing. Working in this city for several years now, it felt right to create a photo series showing what this city is really about. One the one hand there certainly is beauty in this city. On the other hand there is a certain grittiness to some parts of the city.
My social media are of course the best way to stay up to date about all these photographic adventures. In my newsletter I go more in detail about the photography projects I'm working on.
