Throughout his work he explores overarching themes of existence, such as death, grief, desire, memory and the weight of history. His main fields of investigation are the misty landscapes of Iceland, as well as the savage Belgian High Fens with their surrounding forests.
Philippe Beck is a historian and photographer from Belgium. His PhD thesis in history of literature (UCLouvain, 2010) was awarded the Prize of the Parliament of the German-speaking Community of Belgium. In 2010 he was appointed Lecturer and Research Associate at UCLouvain, then Research Associate at the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (2019-2020) and at the Zentrum für Ostbelgische Geschichte (since 2021). His research and scientific publications focus on the literature of the First World War and on the history and literature of the Eastern Cantons. He has been a self-trained photographer since 2004, and in 2020 he graduated from the Agnès Varda School of Photography and Visual Techniques in Brussels.
His artistic work, usually presented under the pseudonym Philippe Black, to mark a difference with academic work and press photos, explores existential themes, such as death, mourning, memory and the weight of history. His work has been exhibited in Louvain-la-Neuve, Mons, Brussels and Reykjavík. In Borderlines (work in progress) he revisits in an artistic way his family history, marked by war and border changes. Here, the work of the historian and that of the photographer converge and are in intimate dialogue.