A fusion of a local cigar smoking transport baron from their childhood with the literal translation of 'Bill Gates' into Dutch.

Willy Depoortere (°1979, Poperinge, Belgium) studied in London at the Royal College of Art where he focused on photography with pinhole cameras. He submitted himself to a particular aspect of this technique. It is a fact that direct canvas size shooting has an insurmountable drawback: the image is displayed and also set negative. This was hitherto ever 'solved' by printing a second positive (albeit with a loss of quality). Since his studies Depoortere continues experimenting with the elimination of the second print by focusing on the subjects rather than the negatives.
His artistic practice cares about relationships between objects and achieves an illusion of reality by the use of light and shadow. The subjects in his photography are prepared for the shooting through different lighting techniques, and makeup. During the recording - which sometimes lasts for days - different manipulations can be undertaken. The final result is a negative image of a negative looking picture / still life, apparently a positive. Of course it is almost impossible to implement this perfectly. The artist sees this margin of error as an artistic value in his work. The complete works of Willy Depoortere hovers between reality and virtuality. He plays with the perception of the viewer that sees both a positive and a negative image in the photograph. Depoortere is influenced by the work of Spanish still life painters of the 16th century such as Juan Sanchez Cotan, Juan van der collars and Felipe Ramírez. Additionally include Giorgio de Chirico and Man Ray as sources of inspiration for him.
Willy Depoortere currently lives and works in London.