Erik Bulckens (Pistenbulcky)

My name is Erik Bulckens.

I studied film school and work as a director. Did mainly commercials but now shifting towards documentary. I curate photographs taken by my late grandfather in the 60ies and 70ies on actual accident scenes.

To me the work has enormous value as it raises questions if a photograph can be artistic (or artistically valued) even if it was not the initial purpose of said photograph.

Marcel De Baer, my grandfather on my mother’s side started out as a mechanic, and later began working as a collision expert for the regional district.

Every time a ‘bad’ accident happened, he had to go to the scene and figure out exactly how the accident happened, taking pictures along the way and writing elaborate reports afterwards.

I stumbled upon the archive (all of the 4000+)  after he passed away. I went through all of these reports and found a lot of incredible pictures
To him they were purely informative/technical but in my eyes, by accident, they often had an artistic quality to them.

Most of the pictures in the collections date from a time before I was born, but I love the black and white texture, the old cars and the overall atmosphere.