The relation between individual and his surroundings forms a clear starting point in the work of Jasper de Beijer. In his new project ‘The Devil drives’, – a photographic impression based on the experiences of a 19th century explorer – the artist lets the subjectivity of his travel journal be the base of his images.

In spite of his need to register experiences objectively and analytically the explorer loses control whereupon the surroundings take over; an experience which the artist has personally experienced during a tour through Western Africa.

For the realization of this photo reconstruction de Beijer took a number of artificial steps; on the basis of the travel books he has made a range of impressions on paper, which served as a storyboard for the photograph series.

He combines photographs of a self made scale model of a jungle, photos of the artist wearing a mask of the explorer, computer-generated landscapes and faces to form a photographic assembly which has the distorted perception of the explorer as a focal point.