Dave Anderson holds a unique place in the the Renee Rhyner family for a number of reasons: his still work, his motion work and his personal fine art work. Dave's foundation and passion are his personal projects: "Rough Beauty" and "One Block: A New Orleans Neighborhood Rebuilds," both of which have become high profile books (One Block was published last year by Aperture). Frequently honored by museums, Dave has exhibited across the globe. Recently, Dave's project "Rough Beauty" was exhibited at Europe's largest photo museum: the Musee de la Photographie, in Charleroi, Belgium. Following the exhibition, Dave was invited to return to Charleroi for an artist residency in which his directive was to capture the essence of the diverse industrial city.

Dave was honored by the opportunity and did quite a bit of advance research on the city. Once there he immersed himself in as many aspects of the culture as he could. He attended soccer matches (even arriving and sitting with local hooligans); he spent time photographing aspects of the city as diverse as the red light district, ethnic festivals, mosques, churches, dying neighborhoods, thriving ones, factories, business centers and — most of all -- losing himself in the myriad neighborhoods that dotted the French-speaking Belgian city. Dave became especially enamored with the café culture of the city (cafés there are most similar to American bars — though he found them to act more as community centers then typical American bars ever do) and spent a fair amount of time photographing them.

While most of this project will not be seen until next year (a book and exhibition will be unveiled in the Fall of 2012), a sampling of images can be found in this short video Dave created called "Charleroi, Mon Amour." We hope you enjoy it.