Our website is about collecting fine art & vintage photos.
We started selling vintage photos in 1997. From the start we have used the internet as a primary platform for displaying the inventory. We were one of the first European online photo dealers to do so.
Today, after almost 20 years Anamorfose has an important online vintage photo inventory. There are about 2.000 photos and books online divided in 44 online photo exhibitions by about 34 photographers. We maintain an inventory of about 2.000 photos in our archive that spans more than 50 years photo history in a full range of styles and subjects.
The vintage photos are available for guidance in establishing or developing a collection as well as buying or selling.
The main photography themes are:
Night photography: a very personal choice of astronomy photos
Contemporary art photography: a small selection of photographers / friends who are also involved in the history of
photography
Documentary photography: early documentary photography from the Interbellum organized around specific themes as death and social photography
Experimental photography: we love to collect and present your unique photographs flirting with the borders of the medium
Figure photography: the human figure is an important theme in photography. Nude and dance photography are an important theme in the collection. Especially the Interwar period is very well represented.
Landscape photography: another important theme in photography. Our collection focuses on pictorialist landscapes.
Pictorialist photography: Anamorfose houses one of the most important Belgian and European pictorialist collections.
Still life: a theme on the border of documentary and experimental photography.
Vernacular photography: we were one of the pioneers in recognizing the importance of amateur or anonymous photography. Since the 1980's we have integrated vernacular work in our collection.
The Vintage Photo Collection
The collection is organized around two important periods in the photo history: pictorialism (1880 - 1920) and the Interwar or Interbellum period (1918 - 1940) with an accent on avant garde photography.
Xavier Debeerst
I started photographing when I was 12. From then onwards it has been a way of thinking and looking at things. Very fast I became aware of the fact that the history of photography was an important source of inspiration.
When I was looking at the old prints it seemed to me that the actual photography missed something.
In my search of this missing aspect in modern photography.
I studied photography, film and graphical arts at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Gent. I experimented with the "old" processes : Gum Printing, Cyanotypes, Platinum prints, etc. I was looking for a personal and contemporary language with the nineteenth century processes. I started to make montages, collages and paintings in which I combined my own pictures and old pictures. It is in this process that I created a fictional character "Monsieur Anonyme" which is my personal tribute to the pictures of anonymous photographers.
Examples of my personal (astro)photography can be discovered on my private website.
