The world is racing by. Images, messages and stimuli jostle for attention at a pace that leaves hardly any room for silence. It is precisely that silence that Dieter Demey seeks, and which he finds in architecture. Not in the buildings themselves, but in what remains when superfluous details are stripped away: a line, a shadow, a relationship between light and concrete. His work invites us to slow down, to pay just as much attention to what is not there as to what is.
This quest for essence translates into a style that has now become his signature: geometric, black and white, clean-lined yet layered. Demey approaches buildings as sculptures, as compositions of planes and lines that only reveal their true character when colour and context are stripped away. This approach, developed in the ‘Concrete Stories’ series, was honoured with the Grand Prix de Belgique (gold medal) and the international Architecture MasterPrize.
Alongside this geometric universe, Demey developed a second, innovative layer in his work: infrared photography. He is one of the very few people worldwide to employ this technique in this way within architectural photography, stripping reality of its familiar veneer. What remains is an image that no longer records, but suggests: an atmosphere reminiscent of a distant future or a forgotten comic strip, as if the contours were drawn in pencil or painted with a light invisible to the eye. It is in these images that Demey explores the boundary between photography and imagination, inviting the viewer to form their own interpretation.
Bio
Dieter Demey is an award-winning landscape, nature, architecture and reportage photographer based in Enghien (Edingen) in the Walloon Region of Belgium, near Brussels. He was born in 1982 in Jette, Belgium. In 2012 he bought his first camera and a couple of years later he joined a photo club in Geraardsbergen. He has studied photography at LUCA School of Arts, campus Narafi, where he graduated with honors in 2023. Since 2024 he is active as a professional photographer, specialising in architecture, reportage, events and drone photography.
2024 - current: professional photographer
2021 - current: photographer for the cooperative Ma Ferme [website]
2021 - current: UAS - exploitant
2017 - 2023: professional bachelor audiovisual techniques: photography [with honors] [LUCA School of Arts, campus Narafi] [bachelor project: 'Concrete Stories'] [internship: Karin Borghouts, more information]
2015 - current: analist in the government sector
2014 - current: member of Fotokring Focus Geraardsbergen [website]
2006 - 2014: researcher in the academic sector
Leo Baekeland Fototentoonstelling 2026
2025
74ste fotosalon Fotokring Focus Geraardsbergen - Geraardsbergen, BE [30 May - 1 June 2025] [link]
Leo Baekeland Fototentoonstelling - Oost-Vlaamse Unie voor Fotografie - Gent, BE [26 April - 4 May 2025]
2024
Out of Office '24 - Breedbeeld - Gooik, BE [22 June - 24 September 2024] [link]
73ste fotosalon Fotokring Focus Geraardsbergen - Geraardsbergen, BE [14-16 June 2024] [link]
Parcours d'Artistes Enghien - Enghien, BE [1-2 June 2024] [link]
Anders bekeken, van Hunnegem tot wereldwijd - Geraardsbergen, BE [March - October 2024] [link]
Abstraction - Gallery Omnibus - Dresden, DE [virtual exhibition] [15 January - 15 February 2024] [link]
2023
Trieste Photo Days - Trieste, IT [27-29 October] [link]
6th Chania International Photo Festival - Blank Wall Gallery - Chania, GR [3-9 August 2023] [link]
Les Couleurs du Quotidien - Belgische Ambassade in Kinshasa - Kinshasa, CD [21 July - 6 August 2023] [link]
72ste fotosalon Fotokring Focus Geraardsbergen - Geraardsbergen, BE [16-18 June] [link]
Out of Office '23 - Breedbeeld - Brugge, BE [10 June - 24 September 2023] [link]
Cityscapes - Blank Wall Gallery - Athens, GR [17-29 March 2023] [link]
Schrijven met licht - Geraardsbergen, BE [12 March - 18 June 2023]
Out of Office '23
2022
Festival International Nature Namur - Namur, BE [14-23 October 2022] [More info]
Indian Summer - Ministerie van Tijd - Itterbeek, BE [16 September - 4 December 2022] [More info]
Expo Focus Artistiek & Creatief - Geraardsbergen, BE [13 March - 23 October 2022] [More info]
Out of office '22 - Breedbeeld - Doel, BE [17 June - 25 September 2022] [More info]
Landed - Ministerie van Tijd - Itterbeek, BE [22 July - 28 August 2022] [More info]
Narafi Graduation Expo - Tour & Taxis - Brussels, BE [17-26 June 2022] [More info]
71ste fotosalon Fotokring Focus Geraardsbergen - Geraardsbergen, BE [17-19 June 2022] [More info]
Parcours d'artistes Enghien - Enghien, BE [4-5 June 2022] [More info]
Narafi Graduation Expo
2021
AntwerpPhoto Festival - Antwerp, BE [26 June - 26 September 2021] [More info]
Fotokring Focus Geraardsbergen 1st Digital International Exhibition 2021 [14 February - 30 April 2021]
2020: 17x10 en/in Perspective - Brussels, BE [September 2020] [More info]
2019
70ste fotosalon Fotokring Focus Geraardsbergen - Geraardsbergen, BE [7-10 June 2019]
bxl inside/out - Galerie Ravenstein - Brussels, BE [8 May - 22 May 2019]
Brussels Street Photography Festival (BSPF) Eyewitness in Brussels Photo Exhibition - Brussels, BE [21 February - 12 May 2019]
bxl inside/out
2018
Shoot for Good - Brussels, BE [22-25 November 2018]
69ste fotosalon Fotokring Focus Geraardsbergen - Geraardsbergen, BE [1-3 June 2018]
<2018
VGC Extra! Talent - Brussels, BE [15 September 2017]
68ste fotosalon Fotokring Focus Geraardsbergen - Geraardsbergen, BE [2-5 June 2017]
67ste fotosalon Fotokring Focus Geraardsbergen - Geraardsbergen, BE [10-12 June 2016]
Metro Imaging Days - Tour & Taxis - Brussels, BE [5-6 March 2016]
66ste fotosalon Fotokring Focus Geraardsbergen - Geraardsbergen, BE [19-21 June 2015]
Seminars
2024.02.13: 'Landschap-, natuur- en architectuurfotografie', Fotogroep Antwerpen vzw [link to the presentation]
2026.05.12: 'Lezing architectuurfotografie', Fotoclub ISO9450 [link]