gie Knaeps was born in Mol Belgium in 1953. Already at the age of 14 he attended the photography school in Antwerp, and after that the St Joost Academy in Breda, Holland. As a 16 year old he was often hitchhiking to concerts and festivals in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and throughout Belgium. His first publications were in 1968 in Dutch musicmagazine Hitweek / Aloha. For 30 years gie was the in-house photographer at Belgian magazine HUMO (at the time the largest and most influential Belgian magazine), where he was the only one to photograph all festivals and concerts, often on stage. In addition, gie did many portrait sessions with artists, mainly on his own initiative. gie is still digging through his archives, so who knows what treasures will pop up in the near future. His style shows an incredible eye for detail and contrast. gie captures the essence of an artist in a split second resulting in an incredible archive.
