Chantal Verstraete

Chantal Verstraete is a Belgian digital artist from Leuven who draws strangers encountered in cafés, trains and waiting rooms. She observes each person for exactly one minute, then draws their face from memory on her smartphone using only one finger, without looking back or correcting the portrait.

Her portraits are not intended as accurate likenesses. They record which facial features remain in memory after a brief encounter—and which have already been forgotten. A device normally used to capture perfect photographs becomes a tool for recording uncertain and incomplete memories.

Critics dismiss Verstraete’s portraits as crude phone sketches built around a simple gimmick. She considers them records of attention: each drawing preserves two fleeting minutes shared with someone she will probably never see again.