Jean-Dominique Burton
Photographer
Jean-Dominique Burton, born in Huy (Belgium), is a Belgian photographer and film director. A tireless traveller, enquiring humanist with a keen, observant eye, Jean-Dominique Burton has turned his attention in recent years to the hidden secrets of Africa, after years travelling in Asia. His approach embraces a sensitive, poetic form of anthropology that unveils beliefs and practices with restraint, respect and a responsible sense of fascination. His photography conveys the pleasure of discovery, a meditation on the origins of artistic creation, with a play on form and theme that steers away from any sterile exoticism.
Jean-Dominique Burton met Jephan de Villiers in 1986, a year when his appreciation of the delicate poetry of de Villiers’ sculptures, together with his philosophy of life close to animism and a respect for nature, brought them together to work on a number of projects, among them ‘Mille et trois souffles d'écorce ou la dernière forêt en marche (‘One Thousand and Three Strips of Bark or the Last Forest on the Move’, Fragments de mémoire (‘Fragments of Memory’), Bestioles ou Bestiaire pour un enfant-roi (‘Beasts and Bestiaries for a Spoilt Child’) and The Bears, to name a few.