TAKING TIME

Squares, steep stairways and little streets in an old town, soccer fields
and market places among others are the backdrop for his seemingly 'normal'
everyday images. As a real documentary photographer he shoots the situations
as they are, he searches for locations with a lot of contrasts, like sharp
straight lines and curvy buildings, small intimate squares or large wide
open spaces, always with such an angle that certain depth and dynamic edge
is given to his photos, making them at first glance seem like 'nice' shots
of public space. Upon a second look, an intriguing world exposes itself
which has a lot less to do with reality than what appeared only a moment
before.

Buurman is playing with reality. By layering multiple images of the same
location he plays with the notion of time and people. If you look long
enough you will find 'errors' in time which expose themselves by looking at
the interaction between people, the distance in which they relate to each
other, the directions in which they walk, sometimes they come straight at
each other without any sign of recognition or warning. The reality of the
images challenges the normal codes of conduct between people and the way
they interact in public spaces.

His work shows how subtle reality can be manipulated. His images appear to
be true, they appear to be the actual reality in which we live everyday. It
shows how easily we can be fooled into things, how relative an image can be,
how easily we can be manipulated into believing something which in fact does
not exist or is inherently different from the truth. He forces us to
reconsider the way we look at reality and all things derived from it. By
looking carefully and cautiously the 'real' world opens itself and
surprisingly enough is seldom what you thought it was upon the first glance.