I met David M. Moinot at an opening at Galerie Roger Katwijk in Amsterdam.
What I liked about him almost immediately was that he felt real. Not overly polished, not too careful, not constantly trying to say the commercially sensible thing. He has opinions, he says things, he responds. I like that in people. It makes them photographable.

At first I asked David if I could make some portraits of him. Partly because I liked him. Partly because I wanted to play with my Fujifilm GFX100S II and the GF55mmF1.7. I had missed that larger format feeling. That calmness. That way a sharp face can sit inside a very soft world.

And yes, I probably went a little overboard with the bokeh.

For the portraits I did not want David against a clean background. That would have been too easy, and also a bit false. His work is not separate from him. It surrounds him.

So I photographed him inside his own world of curled paper, white forms, shadows, loops and openings. Sometimes he is clearly present. Sometimes he almost disappears into the work.

That tension interests me.

A portrait does not always need to explain a person. Sometimes it is enough to show where someone belongs for a moment.

Later I photographed one of David’s paper sculptures, L’Archiviste from 2026.

The object stood on a kind of rotating platform. That sounds practical, and it was. But it also revealed something essential about the work.

With many sculptures, you walk around the object and see another side of the same thing. With David’s work, a small turn can change the whole image. What first looks compact and almost solid suddenly becomes open, airy and transparent.

It is still the same object, but it almost refuses to stay the same.

That was the beautiful photographic challenge.

I did not want to make a clever photograph at the expense of the artwork. I wanted to serve the object. To show its structure, its rhythm, its space, and the strange way it changes when your viewpoint shifts.

There is a lot of white in David’s work, but it is not empty white. It is paper, shadow, depth, repetition, patience. The camera has to be precise enough to hold that. Too much contrast and the softness disappears. Too little contrast and the object loses its body.

So the photography had to stay quiet.

Quiet, but not dead. That is always the trick.

Looking at the nine views together, I almost have to remind myself that this is one single object.

That is what I find so strong in David’s recent work. It seems to be moving from dense and solid towards something more elegant and transparent. The paper becomes structure, but also air. It has weight, but it does not behave heavily.

For me, that is where the work becomes really interesting.

This project also showed me something about the direction I want to move in.

I have photographed objects and products for many years. I know that world well. But I want to photograph more people too, especially people in their own environment. Artists, makers, designers, people who build something around themselves.

Not quick portraits where I fly in, click, and leave again.

I need a little time. I want to feel the person, the room, the work, the atmosphere. When there is time, people stop performing quite so much. Something more relaxed can happen. Sometimes something more intimate.

That is the kind of portrait I want to make more often.

David was generous with that. He let me look, move around, try things, get slightly lost in the lens and the paper. That is a good place for me to be.

A camera, a person, an object, some time. That is usually enough.

If you are an artist, maker or designer and you want portraits in your own environment, or careful photography of your work, feel free to get in touch. I like projects where the person and the work are allowed to belong together.

Photography: Harrie
Work: David M. Moinot
Artwork shown: L’Archiviste, 2026

David M. Moinot, paper, portraits and a rotating sculpture