Eveline Meeuwse is a Dutch-born Swiss photographer. She had her professional training as a photographer in analogue photography in Zurich. Since then, due to her special fascination for available light photography, she hardly uses artificial light for her images.
Nowadays she uses digital photography as well, but in the same spirit and with as little image editing as possible. Sometimes she even combines the techniques by scanning old material, lightly editing, partially hand colouring and digitally printing it.
A reporter of light
Photography with a minimal equipment and by using only the available light sources has always been my explicit philosophy. But this also means being dependent on the given light conditions: No image can be forced, no image can be created when the time is not right. On the other hand this does not mean that photographs are only taken in sunshine and full irradiation, quite the opposite! I am particularly interested in the marginal areas of light, the gentle or rugged transitions, the structures or the "games" of light and shadow. And that's why I consider myself a "reporter of light" or a "light writer" (in the truest sense of the word, as this is the original meaning of the Greek words φως, φωτoς "light" [celestial body] and γραφειν "painting", "writing"): I search for the light, wait for the light or wander with the light.
Eyes first!
I only take pictures, when I "see" them. Therefore, the camera is only a tool and for me it is a question of consistency, to rely only on a minimalist photographic equipment: no high-tech cameras, no arsenal of lenses and no digital image processing. My "visionary" (or sometimes "impossible") images should not be created with technical aids, but the best possible results should be achieved by recognizing what is available and using only the existing means - with flexibility and patience ...
With my understanding of photography, I turn against technocracy in photography, in art and perhaps (a little bit) also in our entire world today. A supremacy that wants to make everything possible at all times (and unfortunately can!), but only manages one thing: cold constructs, intellectual headbirths - and ultimately a completely unnecessary over-production.