Toha De Brant

As an urban anthropologist, photographer and artist I want to unravel the general ideas and assumptions we have about particular places, people and cultures. I have a special interest in the way people relate to urban space and the social issues that arise within cities. This interest has led me through conducting urban anthropological research in Marseille, FR (2011) and in Detroit (2014), USA. Photography has served as an important communication and documentation tool throughout my research and life. I want to shed a different light upon ideas we take for granted, and bring the light back into stories defined by darkness and disrepair. My work focuses on multidimensionality, diversity and transparency. I was born in Belgium (1988) but left the country at the age of eighteen to travel towards Australia and Asia. This curiosity for life in different parts of the world has driven me continuously to discover new places in attempt to understand various cultures around the globe. I chose to frame this passion of understanding the world by studying Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University, NL during which I spend half a year at Monash University, AU. After graduating in 2012 I explored the field of Urban Design at the Utrecht Arts Academy (HKU), which broadened my knowledge of the way we create and think about the physical space in cities. However, I chose to specialize academically, and graduated with a Master’s degree in Urban Geography from Utrecht University in the fall of 2014.