Deuss (49) grew up in Boorsem near Maasmechelen until she began studying in Antwerp at the age of 18. She later bought an apartment in the city. The retail premises below her apartment also turned out to be a very nice space and was where she started a gallery focusing on fine art photography. Within a 20-year period, Deuss curated more than 45 exhibitions there. “My aim was to show my commercial clients that there are also other forms of photography,” she says. 

Lady Gaga 

Those commercial clients are not just any clients. Deuss is the force behind PhotographyPLUS, the photography department of the production house Czar. She set up shoots, recordings and productions not only for Tamino, Geike Arnaert, GQ US with Matthias Schoenaerts, Dries Van Noten and others, but also around fashion items in Vogue and other magazines or newspapers, or of products for Carrefour. In utmost secrecy, she even arranged a production with Lady Gaga at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp. Mario Testino was the photographer on duty. Deuss often works closely with Hannelore Knuts, the former ballet dancer Wim Vanlessen and Lady Gaga stylist Tom Eerebout. 

Murder and manslaughter 

When CC Maasmechelen asked her to curate a photo exhibition in her home town, she responded enthusiastically. In the exhibition, she is showing work by three very different photographers. One of the features of the exhibition is a video installation by Bjorn Tagemose, featuring two shows that Tagemose made for the collection by Walter Vanbeirendonck. Tagemose, who works primarily around music, film and fashion, perhaps most closely aligns with the commercial side of Deuss’ work. 

The section of the exhibition entitled ‘Bloedmooi. Doodeerlijk’ (Drop dead gorgeous, dead honest), a project by the freelance historian and photographer Jakob Ulens, is very different. As part of the project, he digitised the oldest photographic negatives of the Antwerp Judicial Police. What the viewer sees is a whole series of black-and-white images from 1930s crime scenes. Crime scenes where murders or accidents took place, or a reconstruction at night with bright flashing lights.... These pictures are fascinating witnesses of a bygone era and often convey a surreal, alienating character. 

Paintings 

And then there are the works by the Frisian artist/photographer, Joost Vandebrug. He compiles images from photographs he took while on a long hike along the River Danube. Piece by piece and by using a special printing process, he printed out images on pieces of handmade paper. Many of these depict beautiful mountains, or the water in the river that doesn’t stay the same for a second. And all of those individual pieces combine to form larger images that go from light to dark or vice versa. “During the course of my journey, I noticed that even when you are in a dark place, or in a dark phase of your life, light is still a presence. It’s a matter of standing back and taking in the view.” 

We suggested that these are paintings rather than photographs. Deuss nods in agreement. “For my photography exhibitions, I actually go in search of the DNA of photography,” she says. “These represent three very different aspects of photography, but they are all on the same level. There is certainly a difference between ‘taking’ a photo – and quickly posting it on Instagram, for example – and actually ‘taking’ a photo. At a certain point, a photograph becomes an object. That’s when it gets interesting and I want to show it.” 

The exhibition is on show now until 11 March at CC Maasmechelen. For information and opening hours, visit: www.ccmaasmechelen.be