Kayin Luys (BE, 1999) lives and works in Brussels. As photographer he explores the tension between fiction and reality, guided by stories that have been told, personal memories and his interpretations of both. His work is a photographic play of possibilities that reflect and/or transcend reality.

He graduated in journalism from the Erasmushogeschool in Brussels (2021) followed by a bachelor’s and master’s degree in visual arts - photography at LUCA School of Arts (2023, 2025).

He got awarded as Student Photographer of the Year (2024) by the World Photography Awards for his series Don’t Trust Pretty Girls, where he explores his relationship with his in-laws.

With a background in journalism, his main interest in his artistic practice is how fact and fiction are represented in photography. His work often starts with observation of his surroundings, which he manipulates into an image. The result is a colourful, stiffened and often fictional/absurd world.

To create this transcending reality, he works with friends and family members as actors and positions himself as a photographer between reality and fantasy, past and present. From there, he wonders how all these contradictions can coexist within the same space of an image, constructed by himself and perceived by the viewer’s gaze.

The complex dynamics of family life receive attention in his work. The family forms a recognisable structure, a social script that evokes immediate associations. Within his work, he transforms these personal relationships into fictional roles. This creates a space where the familiar becomes strange, and the personal universal.

He believes that even though viewers look at photographs with their own baggage, their perception of depicted stories is strongly influenced by the conventions of popular media and the structures of society. Since he believes there is no way to escape these conventions, he decided to actively use them by setting up a highly controlled, personal dramaturgy.