Story Behind the Pictures #1 “Brussels Between Light and Scaffolds – Palais de Justice, Belgium”

#1 “Brussels Between Light and Scaffolds – Palais de Justice, Belgium”

This image is the result of five years of patience. We often forget that behind a single photograph lie countless attempts and a stubbornness to try again. I had been chasing this exact alignment for years: from this precise viewpoint, the sun sets directly behind the Palais de Justice only twice a year. To capture it, everything had to line up: my timing, my position, and the notoriously unpredictable Belgian weather.

Each time I returned, hoping for a clear sky, but clouds always won. Gradually, I started to doubt whether it would ever happen.
Until this year.

On 16 June 2025, at 9:41 PM, the conditions finally aligned. The sun dropped perfectly behind the dome. For a brief moment, Brussels revealed itself exactly as I had imagined it five years earlier.

Photographed from Etterbeek (Brussels) – 400mm, 1/2000s, exposure bracketing (3 images).