PEDRO BOON 1962 In the 1980s, I studied photography in Higher Technical Education at Narafi in Brussels. I worked for several years in a photo studio and then moved on to an office job, where I slowly withered away, unable to find the energy to break out of the downward spiral. After a difficult recovery from an inevitable burnout, I was able to use a camera again in 2018 and decided to enroll in adult education to update my skills and to receive structured photographic assignments. My favorite subjects are landscapes and tabletop studio work, including images with psychological meaning. In the latter, I find a therapeutic counterbalance to the traumas of my upbringing, in which the meaning of words was distorted. The language of images, however, lies outside that sphere of influence. From my professional life as a photographer, the following anecdote has always stayed with me: for an advertising assignment for a chicken farmer, I went on location to photograph props for small-scale chicken farming that he produced. The client could not persuade his animals to pose, so he decided to tie them by a string around one leg to a small stake in the ground. With furrowed brows, I started anyway… but the result was as predictable as it was hilarious: both chickens tried to escape, flapping and stumbling, in a cloud of earth, feathers, and corn kernels. After several dozen shots, I managed to convince the man to try something else. He untied the animals, and once they had recovered from their fear, they returned—exhausted but spontaneously—to recharge their energy at their shiny feeding trough… assignment accomplished! When the path to that spectacular cliff is a bit too steep, the ideal lens was left at home, and the raindrops weren’t wiped off the filter, you might hear me say: “You have to be willing to make some effort for it, right!”