After a series of photo reports in Belgium, Cuba and Colombia, Vincent Delbrouck gave up any idea of photo-journalistic performance during a project on a group of elderly women with dementia: Dementia (1999-2001). This series, which won several awards in Belgium and Italy, was the prologue to a research project focusing on his own confrontation with reality, his autobiography, relationship problems, inertia and so on. Vincent then switched to color, concentrating his photography solely on those close to him and his experiences, whether in Brussels or Havana, where he has built up close relationships since his first trip in 1997. Obsessed with the intimate portrait, he offers a minimalist take on reality, exposing both his models and his own identity as an ordinary man. In 2004, he began creating “fake” notebooks combining personal and salvaged photos, texts, naive paintings and drawings. This image is from his book project Beyond History (Havana 1998-2006), finally published by Bold Publishing (Amsterdam) in 2008. (Vicent Delbrouck)