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.

Portugal, 2000

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. The element of time seems to become irrelevant as sometimes the same people appear more than once in a photo.

Viale America, Rome, Italy, 2002

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.

Lago di Bracciano, Italy, 2002

Buurman has already started on a new series of images, for his up coming work he aims to be more consistent in his choice for subject matter and locations. He is currently exploring group interactions as found at big events, concerts, fairs and trade shows. Aside from these specific situations he continues to shoot locations and people wherever he goes, when it comes to the world Buurman lives in we can be sure that his drive for new discoveries will never really end.

Lard Buurman – Taking Time (Out)
Date: January 7th – October, 2002
Open: 10:00 – 17:00　
Place: Fries Museum
Address: Turfmarkt 11, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0)58 255 5500
https://www.friesmuseum.nl