March 2019, Geert was diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer. After 2 operations and 3 month off chemotherapy he survived his illness. With this series, Geert and Lotte wanted to visualise the life you go through as a patient, and the huge contradictions between the promises of cure and the actual treatments. That what is meant to heal also breaks you down. "Outside room 8" is about the fucked-up reality in which strength and vulnerability play the lead role and hope is the only constant factor to which one involuntary has to cling.
“Lotte explores the vulnerability of the body and the transience of life play an important role in her work, in which she always searches for the point where beauty meets confrontation.”
“Geert’s work is a poetic, melancholic and romantic version of reality. He encourages the viewer to use his or her own imagination. His work is personal and emotional.”
Geert and Lotte both graduated in 2013 from the Photo Academy in Amsterdam, where they’ve met each other. They are active as freelance photographers who work on commission and create their own projects as well.
Awards Geert Broertjes
Project “Outside room 8” @ Rotterdam Photo Festival, 2022
Project "Outside room 8” @ Foto Festival Naarden, 2021
Book launch & exhibition “One Year” @ Schilt Publishing & Gallery, 2019
"Charles goes Arles - The Hamburg Edition" slideshow during Triennale der Photographie in Hamburg, 2018
"Charles goes Arles" guerrilla slideshow during Rencontres d'Arles, 2017
Exhibition "1 Year" @ Foto Festival Naarden, 2017
Nominated for the Joop Swart Masterclass, 2017
Lotte Bronsgeest
Photofestival Rotterdam
Kunstrai
IPA
Exposure Award
Px3 - Paris Photography Prize - Silver portraiture
International Photofestival Leiden
Photoville New-York
Top 50 Bloom Award by Warsteiner
New Dutch Photography Talent 2015- GUP
