42 Photos of Men, Raw and Solitary

The images of Belgian photographer Daniel Decot stare back at us with a laser gaze from their inky-dark spaces and blinding white environments. That he has an extensive background in theater and performance comes as no surprise.

His next stop: Miami this month to continue his work with local tattooed people.And  MARS (Mons ARts de la Scène) gave him carte blanche for his next project,“Boxing Days” (the results of three years following and shooting boxers in Belgium), mixing photos exhibition and demonstrations of boxing by the Martinez Boxing Club.

“I always go shooting unplanned, adapting to the environment and its unexpected circumstances,” Decot says. “The light conditions, the room constraints are of interest to me and force me to cope with all contingencies, composing my picture on the exact moment. More than a present instant, I prefer mentioning a present space. A place does live, tells stories, as important to me as the one of the person living there. So ... NO studio.”

“My personae have a link with those of Edward Hopper’s paintings, for being solitary, melancholic, mute, and wholly engrossed in their thoughts, locked within, alone and nude facing a window letting the light float in and suggesting the possibility of an infinite world lying beyond, on the other side.”

See more about Daniel Decot at his website, Facebook, and Instagram.