+ABOUT ME
Katy Van Roy - Art Photographer
From my own past experience I prefer to work out social themes.
I was born in 1955 in a French speaking family. My parents had left Brussels to settle in the
northern periphery of Antwerp. My earliest memories date back to kindergarten. I felt out of
place in that foreign language environment. Gradually I learned Dutch at school. Today I think
and speak in both languages with equal ease.
The turbulent Belgian linguistic conflict in the 1960s affected me personally. Depending on
whether I went to Brussels or Antwerp, I was called 'Flamingant' or 'Franskiljon'. It felt weird,
because that dual language and culture is precious to me and fits me like a glove. It got me
thinking.
Substantively inspired by the work of photographers such as Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, Leonard
Freed, Ed van der Elsken, as well as journalists such as Rudi Vranckx, I want to incorporate
humanistic themes into my own visual language.
