Staying Alive & Independent
I'm from a generation when photography was not as omnipresent and massively consumed as it is today. It was hardly possible to live of one’s autonomous work in the Netherlands (and probably not only there) when I started my adventure in photography in the 70s of the last century. I could have a show of my City Stills project in the then influential Amsterdam Fodor Museum, with a good review in a mayor Dutch newspaper but would not sell a single print. So it quickly became apparent that I needed to find other financial resources to survive and be able to sponsor my autonomous projects.
Since I loved art and architecture I specialized my 'commercial' photography in those fields. Over the years I photographed exciting artworks and buildings for mayor institutions, magazines and museums like the Stedelijk Museum, the Kröller-Müller Museum, the De Appel Foundation, Museum Fodor, the NAI (the Netherlands Architectual Institute), Arcam, the Prix de Rome and many more.
Below a somewhat eclectic selection from some of these assignments.
Constantin Brancusi 'Le Commencement du Monde' 1924, courtesy Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo Netherlands
Matt Mullican 'Birth to Death List' performance, Kröller-Müller Museum, March 1991
Per Kirkeby 'Sculpture for the Hildo Krop Place, Amsterdam', 1990 KOS/City of Amsterdam.
Theo van Doesburg 'Maquette Aubette' courtesy Kröller-Müller Museum
