Namur photographer Guy Focant publishes a book which retraces the tour of the borders of Belgium (video)

The tour of all of Belgium. 1,385 km, to see what is happening there, what we find there. Sometimes not much. “The border is a place of passage, where we no longer stop.” Some of these boundary points are lost in the middle of the woods, in the middle of the fields. Some are reported in the middle of a terrace, on the side of a road, along a river. Others have found a new function “We discovered a border post converted into a home, a praline store and even one, near Orval, into a henhouse.”

The interview with Guy Focant in our video at the top of this article.

Three years of work

Guy Focant and his wife traveled the Belgian borders for three years. Meticulous work, which required a lot of preparation.

“We can’t imagine the number of places where we physically cross the border. There are thousands. We had to first select them carefully.” And there, thank you Google. By browsing the aerial views and then the locations, via the internet, the photographer was able to choose the various locations for their visual or historical interest and then go there.

He was able to compile thousands of photos, before selecting the 150 that make up this work.

These images are imbued with a sweet nostalgia. Many reveal true documentary value. We have the impression of finding postcards from the 50s, fleeting testimonies of a bygone time. While leafing through his book, the author remembers the moments sometimes shared with strangers, like this enthusiast who introduced him to his 2CV or these cyclists who pass on the RAVeL along the old boundary between two countries.

His companion also traces the history of the places visited, anecdotes, in texts which highlight the photos.

No[s] limit[es]self-published, will be available in bookstores from this Tuesday, October 8 as well as on the author’s website www.guyfocant.be, at the price of €35.