Since 2014 Bram Tackenberg has been photographing people in their own living rooms. Recently, Bram realized a new partial series, for which he portrayed residents of Heerlen's Heerlerheide. This neighborhood is known as one of the poorest neighborhoods in the Netherlands.

Tackenberg always uses the same pattern for his living room portraits in order to capture everyone who comes before his lens as stately and as vulnerable. Without judgement he portrays his models in the middle of their own living room in mainly natural light. What you see is what you get. Nothing is made more beautiful by accentuating shadows or light. Man in his own habitat, vulnerable and powerful. Thanks to this approach, you see and discover a lot about the inhabitants. You see the differences in attitude, clothing, interior, but because of the identical approach all people become equal at the same time. In this way they transcend the everyday (family) portrait. The direction lies entirely with Bram Tackenberg. In essence, he determines what you see, the moment.

The photographs are not only meaningful as art, but also have a certain social relevance. The portraits are usually exhibited life-size in the public space of the relevant district or city. The exhibition is accompanied by door-to-door publications in the form of a magazine containing the portraits, supplemented with interviews. The people portrayed literally and figuratively open their doors to us and tell us proudly that they are there. In this way residents get to know each other in a different way, it makes them curious and it connects them. But also the insight into the home gives people a sense of familiarity and increases the chance that they will speak to each other and get to know each other better.

ARWE gallery selected 15 photos from the past 7 years. Each photo is available in a limited edition in multiple formats.