A brisk walk through the city streets, smoking a cigarette sitting on a step, a long wait to cross the street, standing static at a red light. Moments of suspension, individual and mechanical, chosen by David van der Leeuw (1989) as the subjects of his photographs. In these shots there is no pretension to elevate “banal” moments to something else, but to capture them in their simplest essence. On the streets of major metropolises – such as Paris, Amsterdam, New York – street photographer David van der Leeuw captures everyday actions with a foreign and detached point of view, that of the voyeur.

The faces of the subjects are never revealed, indeed the focus is on the gesture, posture, movement of the action or silhouette. Moments of loneliness that in some shots are charged with a certain metaphysical desolation, and in others with a futuristic dynamism, making evident the pictorial suggestions from which David is inspired. An example is the shot “Heels in motion,” which draws on Giacomo Balla‘s work “Dinamismo di un cane al guinzaglio,” or the shot “Jacquemus flower,” which acquires a Surrealist feel. With a metaphysical flavor, on the other hand, are photographs such as “Tod’s fashion” or “NYC Smoking man,” dictated by the play of light and shadow skillfully used by David. Hopperian hyperrealism also emerges in some photographs, as in “Paris reflection.”
As can be seen from some of the shot titles, David van der Leeuw’s photographic approach is appreciated by many fashion brands and major magazines, including Jacquemus, Tod’s, Cassina, Vogue and Vanity Fair, for which David translates his artistic vision into editorial and advertising projects.

Courtesy David van der Leeuw