Gallery FIFTY ONE is pleased to present a solo exhibition of Jacques Sonck from May 14 to July 11, 2026.

Born in 1949 in Belgium, Jacques Sonck developed his photographic language from the 1970s onward, traveling extensively across his country. Working primarily with a small-format camera, he approaches strangers in the street and invites them into a direct, often frontal encounter. His portraits, marked by a striking clarity and absence of artifice, isolate the subject from context, giving full presence to faces, bodies, and expressions. One may think of August Sander, Diane Arbus, or Richard Avedon. But where others classified, provoked, or stylised, Sonck observes with patience and respect without judgment. They are a space in which the other person can simply exist.The background is often ordinary like a wall in a street or a stretch of sea. Yet this restraint is part of the power of the work. Nothing distracts the eye. What remains is the direct encounter between the person portrayed and the viewer. Some portraits make us smile, others surprise us, and others leave a feeling harder to name. Taken together, they become a social memory of Belgium, preserving lives and faces that might otherwise have vanished.

Artists: Jacques Sonck