The Outsider

A night owl from the Netherlands, Bart Koetsier is in love with Paris. His photos of the capital dismantle the cliché of the romantic city. Paris bubbles and expresses a complex, provocative personality. Wanderings. One word, just one, that says it all about the spirit and approach of Bart Koetsier. Dutch by origin, the 46-year-old has been living in Paris since 2014. In this city he found a tension that he particularly likes. From this furtive vision, Bart, a solitary walker, is in perpetual quest for evanescent, inspiring and moving encounters. Without a word, he catches in flight fractions of reality from the lives of Parisians. His desire: to restore a singular image, open, free to the interpretation of the spectator. “I'm a bit like a dog. I wander, I get closer to passers-by, I sniff them and I continue on my way. I'm not trying to tell people's lives. I like mysterious atmospheres and tense situations”. For eight years, Paris has established itself as his city of inspiration in its own right. A small online capsule collection entitled “The Outsider”, put together for this online submission, dismantle the usual image of the city. Contrary to the conventional Amsterdam, Paris seethes and expresses a complex, provocative personality. In the streets, bad smells alternate with heady perfumes. Its roughness intrigues him, destabilizes and seduces him. There is nothing romantic about his Paris. On the contrary, his photography breaks this cliché. [Text: Dimitri Beck]