Bieke Depoorter

(2018), Sète#15 (2015), and Agata (2021). She has won the Magnum Expression Award, The Larry Sultan Award, and the Prix Levallois. She was one of four photographers shortlisted for the 2022 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize.

Depoorter was born in Kortrijk, Belgium. She received a master's degree in photography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent in 2009.

The relationships Depoorter establishes with the subjects of her photographs lie at the foundation of her artistic practice. Accidental encounters are the starting point, and how these interactions naturally develop dictates the nature of Depoorter's work. Many of her self-initiated projects are about intimate situations in families and in peoples' homes. For her graduation project and her first book, Ou Menya (2011), she made three trips to Russia, photographing people in their homes that she met whilst travelling around. The series won the 2009 Magnum Expression Award. Depoorter made the work for her second book, I am About to Call it a Day (2014) in a similar way whilst hitchhiking and driving around the U.S.A. In Agata, a project about a young woman Depoorter met in Paris in October 2017, she explores her interest in collaborative portraiture. It is an example of Depoorter's interest in finding people that can work with her in telling a story. These stories are always partially hers, and partially theirs. Depoorter became a nominee member of Magnum Photos in 2012, an associate member in 2014, and a full member in 2016. Depoorter directed a music video for Bolis Pupul's song "Completely Half" from his debut album Letter to Yu. The song and video were released on 29 November 2023.

Depoorter lives in the Muide neighborhood of Ghent with her boyfriend Boris Zeebroek, better known as the musician Bolis Pupul.

• Ou Menya, Kunsthal, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2012 • Aller Retour, Buda Kunstencentrum, Kortrijk, Belgium, 2013 • Snapshot 11/ Namaste Brugge, Folklore Museum (Brugge), Bruges, Belgium, 2015 • I am About to Call it a Day, Museum Hilversum, Netherlands, 2017 • As it may be, Fotomuseum Den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands, 2017 • Bieke Depoorter 2015 – 2018, Fotomuseum Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, 2018; NRW Forum, Düsseldorf, Germany, 2019 • Agata, Bieke & Germaine, Kortrijk, Belgium, 2021; Ter Dilft, Bornem, Belgium, 2022 • A Chance Encounter, C/O Berlin, Berlin, 2022. With work from the series Agata and Michael that began with chance encounters.

• Magnum Manifesto, International Center of Photography, New York, 2017 • As it may be, Cortona on the move, Italy, 2018 • Woman in Focus, National Museum Cardiff, Cardiff, Wales, UK, 2018 • Players, Telefónica Building, Madrid, Spain, 2018 • Romanias, National Museum, Bucharest, Romania, 2019 • Because the night, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland, 2019 • De Nacht, Dvalemodus, De Warande (Turnhout), Belgium, 2020 • Close Enough: New Perspectives from 12 Women Photographers of Magnum, International Center of Photography, New York, 2022/23. With projects from 12 living women Magnum Photos members.