I Built My Own Elevator For My Art Photography Project Void

My name is Dirk Hardy. I’m a 27-year-old Dutch photographer currently based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. For the past eighteen months, I worked on a personal project called Void. After having lived and worked in New York City for six months a few years back, I developed an obsession for the elevator.

Not only is the elevator one of the most important inventions to make modern cities possible, what fascinates me most is the fact that elevators impose physical closeness with strangers and there’s no clear code of conduct for us to follow in order to avoid uncomfortable and awkward situations.

The sooner the trip is over, the better. Did you know that New York City alone counts sixty thousand elevators? Together, these elevators make eleven billion trips a year, which comes down to thirty million trips a day. And after doing some math, I was astonished by the fact that over twenty thousand invisible moments are about to be lost in time and space at this very moment.

As a visual storyteller, the sheer idea that thousands of people all over the world are currently experiencing a moment in this confined, closed space was endlessly exciting to me. Especially because we are unable to watch these moments after the doors close. At least not without influencing that moment with our own presence and thereby changing it.

I wondered how I could invite myself into these intimate moments as a fly on the wall, and thereby offering you (the viewer) the opportunity to witness private moments you know you’re not supposed to witness. And, hopefully triggering your fantasy about the narrative, characters and relationships. As a true voyeur.

A characteristic of my method of working is that I take full control in constructing every aspect of the photographic process. From set design to casting and from styling to sketching. Not only does this allow for me to make conscious decisions about the tiniest of detail, it also allows me to pre-produce the works and to constantly reconsider and develop my ideas.

Knowing this, it would come as no surprise that I decided to stage these elevator moments and to build them up from scratch. With this solution, I could create characters, make my own elevator and use it as a stage on which I could then meticulously recreate the compositions from my own fantasy. So, long story short, that’s exactly how I approached this project and how it developed into an eighteen month adventure.

And, eighteen months after the origin Void’s conception, the twenty-three photographs are published in a hardcover limited edition book, which can be purchased on my website. I learned a lot from this ambitious journey. And, the most important thing I taught myself, is to never back away from big ideas or get intimidated by them. No compromises!

More info: dirkhardy.com