La Petite Mort Gallery

Graduating in Sociology and then Photography in 1998, Gert Jochems focuses his work on sex and its various inflections. In his series About Sex (even though the author specifies this is not its title), he keeps a documentary approach, not vaguely judging, nor forcedly romantic on this theme.

What are these creatures doing? Jochems seems to ask himself curiously, with a minimal and direct look.  If the question is essentially ambiguous, the answer is simply decided by the observer.  In a wider view of the Belgian photographer’s work, going through the intimacy of dozens of people and their lovers in the familiarity of their own abodes, or even those of strangers, an authentic portrait much more affectionate than you could expect emerges in the photographic sentiments.  These pictures imply a relationship of power: the complete intimacy with their own sexuality and the control and familiarity of their urges, represent a power that call for a spectator. The photographer, holding his camera, sits on the armchair reserved to the audience that the concept of exhibition itself requires. So, even if distant, somehow he becomes part of it.