Max Pinckers

Max Pinckers is a Belgian art and documentary photographer renowned for his distinctive approach to probing the ambiguous boundaries between reality and fiction in his artistic practice. 

Biography of Max Pinckers

Max Pinckers was born in 1988 in Brussels, Belgium. He grew up in India, Australia, and Singapore. His educational journey led him to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) in Ghent, where he obtained his Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. Doctorate degrees in 2010, 2012, and 2021, respectively. In 2015, he founded Lyre Press, an independent publishing house, and established The School of Speculative Documentary in 2017.

His artistic expression finds form in four self-published books and exhibition installations such as "The Fourth Wall" (2012), "Will They Sing Like Raindrops or Leave Me Thirsty" (2014), and "Margins of Excess" (2018). The artist received multiple international awards, including the Edward Steichen Award Luxembourg 2015 and the Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2018. 

Additionally, Pinckers is a Doctor in the Arts and a guest lecturer at the School of Arts KASK & Conservatorium in Ghent, Belgium. Currently, he lives and works in Brussels.

Max Pinckers' Art Style

At the core of Pinckers' art lies an exploration of the critical, technological, and ideological structures that surround the creation and consumption of documentary images. For him, documentary photography goes beyond simply representing external reality; instead, it becomes a speculative process that acknowledges reality and truth as multifaceted and malleable concepts, open to interpretations and articulation in different ways.

His work encompasses a hybrid practice, incorporating not only images but also objects, performances, texts, found footage, and sculptural interventions, all of which probe the complex nature of perception. Collaboration holds significant importance in Pinckers' artistic process, as he actively engages with the individuals he works with, fostering an exchange of ideas and critically examining his own role as a photographer.

Max Pinckers' work comprises diverse elements, typically presented as documentary series that narrate stories through a variety of image sequences, employing different photographic approaches. These images serve as poetic references to specific aspects within a defined documentary context. For instance, a toppled glass of milk may evoke visual tropes from Bollywood films, suggesting eroticism, while a folded dollar bill relates to conspiracy theories surrounding its alleged prediction of the September eleven attacks.