Visions. Jean‐Dominique Burton

Covering 50 years of photography over 4 continents, Visions provides a retrospective of the work of the internationally renowned Belgian photographer, Jean‐Dominique Burton. From the banks of the River Ganges to the Vodou priests in Benin, not forgetting his own native Belgium, Jean‐Dominique Burton has dedicated his life to revealing the beauty and the wealth of often ancient, ancestral cultures in his pictures, through which he encourages a form of transmission. As an award‐winning portrait painter, he always approaches his subjects as women and men, in a positive way, through their expressions, smiles and occasionally their scars. “I am the opposite of a war photographer, but there is no real word for that”

Visions presents excerpts from some of his best‐known work, alongside previously unpublished pictures, all exceptional pieces. This compelling compilation is an invitation to meet traditional chiefs from Burkina Faso, as well as European artists, Tibetans in exile, Beninese hunters now involved in protecting their environment, together with master crystal blowers from Liège, Laotian pilgrims, and many others. His subjects make up thousands of people, unknown but connected to each other through a coherence that is as much artistic as it is human. It is this sense of dignity towards his subjects that lies at the heart of the author’s photographic approach.

This 396‐page retrospective takes us across the planet to some astonishing places, inviting us to discover a world, whose beauty and richness can be found in the human beings who inhabit it. It offers us an opportunity to marvel, through the eyes, the Visions, of Jean‐Dominique Burton.

Text in English and French.