About me

Selfportrait without a camera

I was born in Amsterdam, went to Groningen to study, became a father and never left the north again.

Struck by the power of the visual arts, I am always looking for ways to express my inspiration.

I have been photographing since I was 11 years old. From the age of 20 I processed my photo’s in the darkroom, in which I gave them the character I felt they needed and discovered new images within my images.

People like Günther Spitzing inspired me with their photographic editing techniques, which created opportunities to escape the constraint of the given image.
In a very different way, I am also inspired by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, who manages to make photography look like art creations without any editing.

In recent years, I have been exited about the possibilities of graphically editing images, no longer in my darkroom, but on the computer.

In my photo work I see an upward trend over the years in the field of fidelity, sharpness, color fastness and true-to-life rendering.
This shows the dedication to capture reality as well and faithful as possible.
However, a photo never turns out to be just a good representation of what was photographed. In addition to the primary representation, images and objects harbor structures or details that strike me and take me into unnoticed realities, which apparently were already available there.
The difference between reality and the representation of that reality has always intrigued me.
In my work as a clinical psychologist – psychotherapist I have grown attached to the fundamental subjectivity of the experienced reality.

In my graphic editing I sometimes stay close to the original image, but more often the new image is not easily traceable.

For a while I struggled with the question of whether I should explain how my works came about. Especially in the beginning, I felt a strong need for that, out of enthusiasm and wonder, but at the same time I abhor art that will only appeal when explained.
An art object must be able to captivate the viewer by itself.

Of course, a story can add something to understanding the background of its creation, but it should not be necessary, nor a condition for its enjoyability.

Website design and construction: Joop Wolff