Photographer Steef Zoetmulder (1911-2004) is a key figure in post-war Dutch art photography and is known for his creative depiction of everyday reality. Special structures and patterns, emphasized by unexpected angles, lighting and cut-outs, are characteristic of his work.
Kunsthal Rotterdam will present the exhibition from Saturday 2 September Steef Zoetmulder compiled from the collection of Leiden University Libraries. Iconic Rotterdam buildings, still lifes, portraits and abstract compositions: more than fifty vintage prints, made by Zoetmulder himself, are shown to the public for the first time in the Kunsthal.
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Steef Zoetmulder grew up during the Interwar period, in which he – inspired by photographers such as Piet Zwart, Gerrit Kiljan and Jan Kamman – endorses the basic principles of New Photography, a movement that focuses on the idiosyncratic and graphic representation of the subject.
Later, Zoetmulder developed his own visual language that is related to 'Subjektive Photography', in which form and expression are considered more important than documenting the subject. In his increasingly abstract work, Zoetmulder experiments with different image cuts, lighting techniques, perspectives and compositions, which he calls 'photographic motifs'.
For his work composed with light and glass – so-called 'light graphics' – Zoetmulder photographs through distorted glass or water: experiments that are reminiscent of the use of distortions within surrealist photography.
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In addition to his autonomous work, Zoetmulder focused on publicity and advertising photography after the Second World War. Fashion, trade and industry are themes that frequently appear before his lens. The subjects in Zoetmulder's photos, such as the E55 exhibition about innovative technology, the new Bijenkorf on the Coolsingel and the construction of the Euromast, exude the aesthetics and atmosphere of post-war reconstruction.
Especially for the exhibition, Maartje van den Heuvel – curator of photography at Leiden University Libraries (UBL) – has selected more than fifty original prints, supplemented with archival documents from the photographer, which highlight his broad oeuvre.
Text: Caroline van den Boomgaard
More information: www.kunsthal.nl
