North Mag

Joke De Wilde works as a curator for Postuum, is an assistant at Stieglitz 19 gallery and she is a photographer for The Word Magazine. How impressive is that? This girl has been featured by quite a few media and blogs already. Nonetheless, I got very curious about what goes on inside the head of this creative power woman.

ABOUT // LIFE

I met Joke during a photoshoot of a dear friend. When looking up her work, later on the day, I immediately realised this was not just an average photographer. The inspiring aspect is that she’s a real workaholic, one with passion and a whole lot of will power.

You can’t just stick a label on her, as she’s doing so many things at once. Postuum for example, is one of her more recent projects. Annelies Desmet contacted her to be the photographer for this concept, but that little collab quickly developped into Joke running the project, together with Annelies.

“Working on different projects at once is really important for me. I feel like the different things I’m working on, influence and add value to each other.”

“At this moment, I couldn’t wish for anything better.”

She’s also not your average school girl that follows the patterns of graduating and going to Uni immediately after that. Taking a gap year made her choose for a degree in photography instead of biology or psychology. It seems like she chose a completely new direction, but actually, she is just extremely fascinated by people, the human body and connections, which makes her shift in dreams less radical.

After two years, she quit the course to work full-time for The Word Magazine, which she should never regret, as her pictures and work are absolutely thrilling by being so pure, having a high life-as-it-is aspect and being spiced up with a strong sense for aesthetics.

Later on, she picked up her photography course again and became a team member of POPPOSITIONS, an off-fair held during Art Brussels, organised by Liv Vaisberg. Joke was in charge for the Dutch press communication. This experience was really valuable to her and influenced her own style, like so many other things she did while studying. It definitely learned her to multitask and not give up on dreams, but just combine them all!

FASCINATION // 24/7 // PERSONALITY

What fascinates Joke, is that people have so many different perspectives. One might find her work sensitive, while the other might think it is strong and realistic. I personally think, her pictures are characterized by a lot of strength and mysterious realism.

“I try to imply a bit of a self portrait in every picture, in the most different ways. I do it unconsciously conscious. I like to see how people read my pictures in a different way. The only thing that I truly do conscious, is adding a piece of myself into the picture. (…) My work is my intuition”

To Joke the most essential part of the picture is to captivate the personality and the hands. “They tell so much about someone’s character. I don’t think ‘eyes are the gates to ones soul’. It are definitely the hands. Before I even photograph someone, I am attracted to their personality and that makes every picture so personal and slightly intimate.”

MORNINGS AT HOME // IN BELGIUM
I love waking up, seeing the sunrise peeking through my window and enjoying a lovely cup of morning coffee. Soft light and coffee are definitely my first loves. I am grateful for living in Belgium and waking up her every morning definitely triggers my inspiration. It’s a country full of opportunities and I don’t think a lot of people know or appreciate that enough.

I don’t even feel the need to leave this country, like many do, to find inspiration elsewhere. This is it. I am inspired every morning by new ideas that I’d love to develop, just here. Home is where the heart is.