“Vivarium is a project that I started in 2018, and each work takes around four months to complete,” says photographer Dirk Hardy to the Phoblographer. The photographs are all self-contained dioramas that he built himself. After seeing the project at Photoville 2024, we were captivated. “Each Episode from Vivarium is about a topic that I’m occupied with at that moment. This makes each Episode highly personal since I decide on the subjects whether they come from a societal issue, observation, or experience.” For example, Episode 7 is called Intermission — and focuses on the break he took during the pandemic. And each time he does this, he takes on the identity of the fictional characters in his frames — sort of like how an actor does.
All images by Dirk Hardy. Used with permission. For more, please check out his website.
“It marks the end of a very intimate period, in which I made a space for them to inhabit.”
Dirk Hardy
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How Dirk Hardy Never Lost His Passion for Photography
Dirk’s love of the arts didn’t manifest with photography. In fact, at 10 years old, he wanted to become an architect. When exploring the craft, he realized that he needed a good camera. He saved up money and in 2007 bought his first one. “Parallel to starting this new hobby, I also start my architecture studies at the University of Technology in Eindhoven,” Dirk explains to us. “After 2,5 years of this ‘hobby’ completely taking over my life, I finally decided to switch studies. I started my photography and fine art bachelor at the Willem de Kooning Academy of Visual Arts in Rotterdam, where I graduated in 2014.”
Over the years, he’s used many different pieces of equipment. Honestly, the most important thing to him has been the lights. “I started small and slowly upgraded my toolkit over the years,” he tells us. “And to be completely honest, at some point in time I developed a slight obsession with light stands and other grip and rigging equipment. So I started collecting all the tools I could afford, from enormously heavy duty light stands that extend to over 20’ to butterfly frames and C-stands.” Knowing how to use light brings Dirk a lot of joy as it helped him develop his practice and connect the artistic and technical sides of his brain. Often, these two sides speak to one another in a second language. But in his case, they work together in a very symbiotic partnership.
“I guess the curiosity in the technical aspects of the medium came very naturally to me and this has often made it easier (read: less difficult) to realise my vision.”
Dirk Hardy
Dirk, while having this knowledge, is also so intrigued by AI. “It feels like I am a painter in the early 19th century, and out of the blue comes this new invention called photography,” he states. “At the time, the implications on the medium were on an existential scale, and I can imagine many image makers today to have a similar feeling of sheer shock. However, when we look back on the development of painting since the invention of photography, I can’t help but feel hopeful in a way: photography liberated painting from its classical realistic aesthetic and allowed it to develop in the most surprising ways in the 20th century.” In this way, he wonders if AI liberated photography. All he cares about is making meaningful images.
Making His Own Worlds
In crafting my own worlds in my studio, joy and frustration are very close and both occur constantly. In my work, the search for the right visual translation of my idea with the use of space, materials, colours, and objects takes up most of my time. The construction of Vivarium’s interiors is a constant quest of trial and error. My camera is at a fixed point, and I judge each and every choice from that one vantage point over a period of several months. It is often assumed that I simple make a design that merely needs te be executed, but reality couldn’t be further from the truth. It is a highly reactionary process: by slowly building these worlds in front of my camera, and questioning my choices constantly, I am able to let time do its thing. At some point in the process, I am happy with the space in relation to the work’s topic, and I can invite the model(s) to inhabit them. There’s a lot of joy in inventing visual ways to communicate with the viewer, but questioning my own choices can come with a lot of frustration and fear.
Authenticity Statement about Dirk Hardy
As part of the Content Authenticity Initiative, The Phoblographer works with human photographers to verify that they’ve actually created their work through shoots. These are done by providing us assets such as BTS captures, screenshots of post-production, extra photos from the shoot, etc. We do this to help our readers realize that this is authentically human work. Here’s what this photographer provided for us.
