In the Footsteps of Angela reflects on the evolution of Flemish education through the lens of one institution: Mater Dei in Overpelt, founded in 1920. While rooted in a specific place, the school functions as a mirror for broader social, cultural, and ideological shifts within Flemish society over the past century.

The series traces how education for girls was historically shaped by discipline, segregation, and clearly defined social roles. Early images echo a system in which education was closely tied to domesticity and moral order, strongly influenced by Catholic doctrine and enforced by strict institutional structures.

As the series unfolds, gradual transformations become visible. Educational choices broaden, hierarchies soften, and separation gives way to interaction. The disappearance of religious authority from daily school life, the introduction of mixed classes, and the diversification of study fields mark a slow but fundamental shift toward autonomy and plurality.

Rather than reconstructing history literally, the work approaches the past through atmosphere, gesture, and spatial tension. The images oscillate between memory and present-day observation, allowing different temporal layers to coexist within a single frame.

The final images engage with recent disruptions, including the Covid-19 pandemic, when control and discipline temporarily resurfaced under new circumstances. Here, historical echoes return — not as repetition, but as reflection — revealing how structures of order and care continuously reappear in times of uncertainty. In the Footsteps of Angela is not a documentary account, but a visual meditation on education as a social framework: a place where ideology, care, control, and emancipation intersect, and where personal lives are shaped within larger historical movements.