SOLAR PHOTOGRAPHY NEWS
| Solar Photography welcomes Sema Bekirovic, Katja Mater, Gerco de Ruiter, Hans van der Meer and Victor Bergen Henegouwen. |
| Sema Bekirovic creates photographs, videos and installations, in which key elements are coincidence, chance and the friction between nature and culture. In some works she plays with the tension between obtaining and the letting go of control; creating situations in which things can occur or happen spontaneously, letting chance decide how the work develops. In other works she presents nature as something beyond control which we try so hard to control by means of culture. Sema's photos, videos and installations evolved from her fascination with the medium photography. Not only is she interested in the basic qualities of images, but also in the effect images can have. Giving new significance to things without actually altering the things themselves. She considers photography as an organic medium that can be shaped in many directions as long as they don’t show what is, but what might be. |
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The work of Katja Mater is mainly about the medium-specific characteristics of photography such as light, movement, time and space. She invites the viewer to have a good look at the abstract phenomena that she depicts in staged situations. At the same time the viewer’s own conditioned ways of perception is also questioned. How to get hold of these unstable imagery? The underlying construction of the image is always visible, deliberately. Her methods might be considered ‘pseudo-scientific’ or some or another form of ‘romantic mathematics.' The canonized regiments of photography are hard to escape, but easy to neglect. Her final aim is to enter the sublime, through playful amateurism. |
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| Gerco de Ruiter is well known for his environmental and landscape pictures. Over the years he developed a method of taking landscape pictures from a kite or helium balloon, creating stunning material of the Dutch landscape. The arrangements are 'mondrianesque' -Dutch landscape reduced to mere planes and lines. What makes these photographs so exciting, what creates their suspense, is their perpetual tumble from figurative to abstract and vice versa. |  |
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Being bound by a journalistic way of working which would be restricted to capturing the highlights, Hans van der Meer focuses on what is non-spectacular and accidental. The choice of a distanced perspective which show connections binds elements into their surroundings. In many series which are composed of valid individual images, van der Meer tells of popular recreational preoccupations and their social context in ironic, but affectionate photographs. Humor in photography is a difficult subject and many have failed. But van der Meer manages to make us chuckle in view of scenes which are sometimes quite grotesque. His images have found their way in publications, (international) exhibitions and commissioned work: Examples are the publication “The other final” (2003) in cooperation with ad agency Kessels Kramer, documented at the remote Himalayan state of Bhutan and on ‘European Fields’, the landscape of lower league football in images. |
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| Fashion and portrait photographer Victor Bergen Henegouwen conducts a game with the viewer: first there is the immediate identification, then there is the deception. In a way he's fooling the viewer because the second layer of the pic sets us back. His work deals with constructing identity and losing it at the same time. What happens if someone is portrayed in an environment that is not his, in clothes that are not his, in a pose that is not his? Bergen Henegouwen applies a set of deranging effects to deny one's identity. To see what happens. |  |
| Stig / Sassen: Adidas Originals Fall / Winter 2007- 2008. This campaign, developed by ad agency 180, has already been picked up as 'Ad of the week' by 'Luerzer’s Archive' www.luerzersarchive.net |
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| For the introduction of the Dutch edition of French fashion glossy L’Officiel, our photographer Ingmar Swalue , created a editorial series of perfume bottles. The pictures blend in perfectly the high fashion look and feel of the magazine |  |
| Viviane Sassen just finished two fashion shoots, one for Swarovski and one for Louis Vuitton Man, the collection brochure ‘Fall / Winter 2007 - 2008 in collaboration with Ogilvy Paris. Below you can have a look at the result of the Louis Vuitton shoot. |  |
| Kim Boske, Viviane Sassen and Yvonne Lacet: For the weekly special magazine edition of French newspaper 'Le Monde' three of our photographers were commissioned to contribute to the the theme of 'Mode, design, Tendance Nord'. |
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| Elspeth Diederix photographed a special edition of photos’ for a publication of the ‘Dutch Graphic Society’. This series of photographs consists of a painted man lying in the sand and reflects Elspeth’s crafted way of photography beautifully. |  |
| Krista van der Niet created a series of photographs for the annual ‘Dutch Design Awards’. For this she worked together with graphic design company Dumbar, who’s creating the communication for the award. The pictures have a strong ‘tongue in cheek’ quality. |  |
| Raimond Wouda currently works on ‘Document Nederland’. In collaboration with NRC Handelsblad newspaper and the Rijksmuseum. It is a documentary project where Dutch photographers capture specific themes of Dutch culture. Raimond’s subject is ‘Fan-culture’: A series of photographs about the diversity of fan culture among the Dutch in general. The exhibition opens the 7th of December at the ‘Huis Marseille’ museum for photography. To be visited from December 8 till February 24, 2008. Please look at www.huismarseille.nl |
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| Elspeth Diederix has an exhibition in collaboration with Maura Biava, at the Photography Museum Amsterdam (Foam), called Doride / Ultramarine. It is a joint project focusing entirely on underwater photography. They went on various expeditions to coastal areas in the tropics and subtropics, where they each worked on their own themes: Biava depicting her personage Doride underwater in all kinds of situations and Diederix portraying utensils and assemblages in the vast, penetrating blue of the sea. Alongside they created a publication / catalolgue with this work, published by ‘De jonge hond’. From 16 November - 09 December 2007, www.foam.nl |  |
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Viviane Sassen received the prestigious Dutch art prize 'Prix The Rome 2007'. This dutch equivalent of of the Turner prize is the oldest and best known art award in The Netherlands for upcoming artists. We congratulate her with this fantastic achievement! The exhibition can be seen at Gallery Witte de With in Rotterdam from 19.05.2007 till 1.07.2007 or visit www.Prixderome.nl Viviane Sassen just shot the new Fall/Winter 2007/8 campaign of Japanese designerlabel TSUMORI CHISATO. More about Viviane will follow in September when we have approval of publishing more exciting news on several projects she did this summer. Just opened is her first solo exhibition at Museum Jan Cunen in Oss, from 3 June till 26 August 2007. See www.museumjancunen.nl Viviane was also commissioned as jury member for the prestigious festival for fashion and photography at Hyeres. She and last years winner Jaap Scheeren (also a member of Solar Photography) had an exhibition during this years edition. www.villanoailles-hyeres.com |
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| From 02.06.2007 t/m 29.06.2007 Anuschka Blommers and Niels Schumm have a group exhibition in the Kroller Muller Museum in Otterlo for the Dutch Fashion Biennale 2007. Title of exhibition is 'Happy Fashion Photography'. Other photographers exhibiting are Elle Verhage and Carmen Freudenthal, Maurice Scheltens en Melanie Bojano. Opening of the exhibition is Saturday 02.06.2007 at 1600 hours, for more information see www.kmm.nl and www.arnhemmodebiennale.com. |  |
| Raimond Wouda has an exhibition in the Foam (Photography Museum Amsterdam) from 21 April till 17 June with his project called 'School'. For this Raimond followed several years children on high schools all through Holland. The result is an impressive series of photographs in terms of content and scale! www.foam.nl |  |
| Martine Stig has a blog about her journey to Japan (which she got a grant for from the Ducht Art Council), where she'll be focussing on developing her movie directing skills next to her photography. You can watch the results on http://www.martinestig.com/Tokio/ Work of Martine is selected for the upcoming Exhibition 'Amidst Photographers' which will be shown in The Hague Museum of Photography from 23-06-2007 till 30-09-2007 curated by Koos van Breukel. In the exhibition other photographers will be featured such as Richard Avedon, Paul Blanca, Rineke Dijkstra, Ed van der Elsken, Gerard Fieret, Robert Frank, Inez van Lamsweerde, Hellen van Meene, Daido Moriyama, and the Starn Twins. See www.fotomuseumdenhaag.nl |
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| Jaap Scheeren, winner of the Hyeres Festival 2006, has just been commissioned to do a series of photographs for the French newspaper 'Liberation'. The theme is 'Fete de la Musique' which will be starting beginning of July in Paris. Jaap has been asked to photograph his 'surreal' interpretation to this theme. Also just released is Kilimanjaro Mag, the avant garde magazine on art love & everyday life, where Jaap shot a 'shining futuristic space' cover for. Theme is "Luxury and Patronage, the ultimate luxury destination in the 21st century is space". Other Solar Photographers contributing are Anushka Blommers and Niels Schumm. See http://www.kilimag.com/ for worldwide stockists |
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| Gertjan Kocken just shot an editorial on an Aziatic fast food store 'Tampopo' in Amsterdam for for international lifestyle magazine Wallpaper. www.wallpaper.com |  |
| Ingmar Swalue photographed the catalogue for Dutch design label 'Workware'. Last month he shot a campaign for Dutch bank ABN Amro in assignment of TBWA/Neboko. |  |
| Yvonne Lacet made a series of photographs for 'Provider Magazine', one of the leading international magazines concerning colour and product forecasting. www.providercreative.com |  |
Elspeth Diederix will photograph a special edition of photo's for a publication of the Grafische Cultuur Stichting Nederland. These photographs will reflect Elspeth's crafted way of photography and will be a delight to see the results of this project.
An interview with Kim Boske on her photography can be read in Dutch design magazine 'Matters', She also just sold a very big print of her work (5x3 meter) to a mayor design company.
