ROGER LAUTE

Roger Laute was born in 1950 in Ghent. Since the beginning of his high school studies he was interested in printing and graphics. It is therefore not surprising that he later decided to go to study at Sint Lucas Art School in Ghent, where he studied publicity and photography. During this time he gained inspiration by one of his teachers, Walter De Mulder. After his studies, Roger worked for six years in a photo studio and he was most of the time occupied with industrial and technology photos.

 

In his free time he likes to take photos of other objects as well. His range of interests is broad: from landscape and architecture to people. He later became an independent photographer and took photos of things such as wedding and other reportage, portraits, architecture photography, publicity and industrial photography. From 1979 to 2015 he taught photography at the Art School of Sint Lucas in Antwerp and there he became a home photographer who took part as a photographer at many different events such as nominations, exhibitions, congresses, etc. and his photos were used for the school archive. Roger Laute is now retired, but he still takes photos.

 

Laute’s format of preference is classic analogue black-white photos. However, he recently works with digital photography. He says that “To take photos is to ‘preserve’ and that is essential. It is to ‘preserve’ it for yourself, or, to share it with others.” For Laute, black-white photos accomplish this task better than their digital counterpart. He does not deny that digital photography is a practical medium and that it is unlimited in its uses and possibilities, but he still finds the digital photos to be somewhat ‘fleeting’: “The digital world is a very abstract concept for me and many others of my generation. We prefer to hold a physical product in our hands.” This is why this selection consists almost entirely of both older and more recent analogue black-white materials. On the other hand, Laute admits that digital photography has inspired him to take colourful photos and to pay more attention to the colours around him.

 

In addition to photography, Roger is also crazy about cats. He owns four cats himself and collects original books and graphics about cats. The cat is evidently his favourite photography topic, which can be seen in this collection.

 

Moreover, the cat was the only topic covered by June 2015 exhibition at an Antwerp café. He is also interested in other photographers’ works and has a book collection at home where the photographers talk about their work and provide commentary on their own photos.

 

Roger is married with three children and three grandchildren. However, he prefers to let his work speak for him than have the focus rest on his personal information.

 

A selection from his archive is available on the following pages for your viewing.