LIFE WILL GIVE YOU PICTURES
Revealing the stories that are hidden in a majestic but worn out house that harbours a gigantic chaotic archive of three generations of photographers, melancholia, history and the eternal struggle between fathers and sons come together.
SYNOPSIS
83-year-old photographer Herman Selleslags wanders through his past, captured in photos that are piled up in his house, situated in the iconic and prestigious Cogels-Osylei, Antwerp. The archive inside includes the photographic heritage left by his father Rik and the work by Herman’s son Jan.
The collection unravels the story of an extraordinary photographer who has managed to sketch an exciting musical and social era, spanning more than 70 years. But the thousands of prints conceal a complex, dual father-son relationship that has marked this family of photographers.
The result of a lifetime of work is stacked chaotically up to the ceilings. In boxes, folders, cupboards, hanging on the wall, swinging between household refuse, in drawers, in books, on the computer. From the basement to the attic, the house is littered with sleeping ghosts on photographic paper, negatives, contact sheets, glass plates, books, cameras of all kind.
Life Will Give you Pictures is a journey through Herman’s memories and thoughts. Wandering and rumbling from crunching floor to floor, life and work passes by. Photographic encounters that reveal a unique hidden collection of a special photographer and his intriguing life’s work.
But there is more than meets the eye. This is more than the story of the glittering career of one of Belgium’s most famous photographers. LWGYP is a means and common thread to explore a deeply human personal – yet universal – narrative line throughout the film. The second storyline – about three generations of photographers in one family- slowly unravels through the film and depicts how these different generations influence(d), inspire(d) or still hold back each other in life. How decisive are the choices a father makes for the path his son will walk? What effect does a father’s success, misfortune, or trauma have on his son? And can a son break free from the pattern his father has lined out?