English:ContretypeQ162102

Contretype was founded in 1978 by photographer Jean-Louis Godefroid to promote auteur photography in the Wallonia-Brussels federation and abroad. Jean-Louis Godefroid was the first in Brussels to promote the artistic nature of photography. Through the years, in his own home and, from 1988, in various official venues, he organised exhibitions of photographers who were little known at the time but who went on to become famous (Horst P. Horst, Robert Rauschenberg, Robert Mapplethorpe, Bernard Plossu, Karl Blossfeldt, Willy Zielke, Roger Kockaerts, Gilbert Fastenaekens, etc.). From 1997, he developed a programme of artistic residencies for Belgian and foreign photographers: Alain Paiement (Quebec), Bernard Plossu (France), Elina Brotherus (Finland), JH Engström (Sweden), Philippe Herbet (Belgium), etc. This programme gave artists the opportunity to reflect on their own work while developing a photographic project tied to the specific context of Brussels.

In 2022, after several years of collective management following the death of Jean-Louis Godefroid, Contretype has a new artistic and managing director, Olivier Grasser.. His plan is to develop and assert Contretype as an Art Centre for Image and Contemporary Photography.