In the world of fine arts, photography is considered to be one of the youngest branches that existed thanks to modern technology. The purist often feels that photography is not fine art because it is created through a device and in present time is made further with the use of digital enhancing. Still, it need technical skills, concept and art vision in order to create a great photo art. Big names such as Pierre et Gilles, David LaChapelle, Cindy Sherman and many more alike are proofs that art photography should be part of fine arts.
Photo by Marcel Van der Vlugt
On my recent visit to Amsterdam, I was fortunate enough to spend time with one of Dutch renowned conceptual photographers name Marcel van der Vlugt. As professional photographer who started his first exhibition since 1981, Marcel has done many works from fashion for some reputable fashion magazines such as L’Officiel and Vogue, campaigns for W Hotel groups, L’Oreal Paris and many more; to conceptual art photography for solo exhibitions.
He is also known for his exclusive works using polaroid film material and the preference to use slow working method in order to create very precise compositions. With some prestigious received awards including ADCN Lamp for Best Photography and a Golden Lion from Venice Film Festival, Marcel van der Vlugt works have been on display in some of the most prestigious venues including at the Photo Museum at The Hague, the MCA in Chicago and in the Louis Vuitton Gallery in Tokyo.
In one fine winter morning in Amsterdam, I visited Marcel at his workshop and studio to find out more about his inspiration to future projects.
Could you please share us your background? What made you to choose photography as your medium? Is this always your dream?
My grandfather from my mother’ side had a men’s fashion store and my grandfather from my father’s side was a tulip grower. I was born above my father’s photo studio and at the age of three we moved to another house that was again above my fathers’ studio. I have lived there until I was 22.
And now I own a building with my studio and editing room on the ground floor. In other words the photo studio has always been part of the space I live in. As a kid when I came home from school, I had to cross the studio before entering the apartment. There I saw my father working and became aware of the magic of photography. I could climb up to the attic where piles of photo magazines were stored and saw the magic of a published photo. And the magic has never left me.
How do you get your inspiration?
Inspiration I get from a lot of things, from things I collect, cutouts from newspapers, films, books, architecture, from travels or from a beautiful woman I have met...
You have created works for fashion to hotels and it always wrapped in contemporary pop style. Is this your photography style? What is the essence of your photography?
My best works are a combination of beauty and ugliness, balance and distress, real and fake, attraction and repulsion. There is always a strong conceptual side to my work but also a very crafted side both in execution and presentation. For both commissions and personal work I explore the theme of ‘beauty’.
Tell us about your collaboration with W Hotels group. How does it started and how many W’s so far that you have been working on? How far does the collaboration works between you and the hotel?
The collaboration started with W Barcelona in 2010 when I created a number of mural installations for the SWEAT spa, commissioned by Dutch agency ...staat. After that I worked with W Hotels directly for London, Bali, Paris and Verbier. Since the first time I worked for W, I have come up with the concept of using elements of the country, the city, its view and the local cultural heritage and combining them for each location. We have produced a series of photographs that are site specific for each hotel and will not be shown in others. I work together with creative directors Gray Shealy and Ted Jacobs who are responsible for W Hotels internationally and the interior architects and stylists.
What kind of role that photography artworks these days are having towards overall design, especially for hotel design?
Hotels have become a new cultural meeting place where fashion, design and art mingle and where parties, fashion shows and other events are organized. My personal work has found its way in collections all over the world. Even hotel owners show their private collections in their hotels (CITIZEN M such as in Glasgow).
What about for W bali? What did you create for them?
For W BALI we made four basic images. Normally I would do the research for each country but since I visited Bali before the inspiration came from my memory especially from my last visit twenty years before. The beauty of the Indonesian women, the colours. the decorations with tropical flowers, the golden dances in the temple and the legends I might not fully understand as a European. The fear for the sea and demons and the worshipping of nature. All of these bits and pieces you will find in the resulting photos that are called “The legends”.
As we are constantly searching for new ways of showing the photos we came up with the idea of printing the photos on large silks as if they were sarongs. Then we photographed and filmed these silks on a model in my studio in Amsterdam, which resulted in the photo for the EWOW suite. Then for the opening event these silks were draped as large ‘spandoek-sarongs’ and staged with models attached to it. The videos were projected on large LED screens behind the DJ’s stage. So the launch party was a truly mixed media event.
Can you share us about your current and future project?
For this spring I am planning to have a new book published with photos of flowers, which is called Buds. It is a collection of flower portraits, which he started in 1990, and still continues to work on. Here I explore the beauty of dead and rejected flowers, which are faded, dried up or deformed. At the same time the works are also a search in symbolism, form and colour.
Although the recent works have become more blurred and abstract a sexual connotation may always be present. Close-ups of lips, faces and bodies with flowers are added. Furthermore a more complex project called Case of Beauty is programmed in which I explore the subject of beauty in a very literal way, combining landscapes, portraits and still-lifes of Beauty.
In the world where technology and photography gadgets are getting more and more sophisticated and independent, do you think it will effect on your work as photographer? What is your opinion on everyone can be an “instant” photographer with phone applications these days?
Its very good that photography has become much more available these days and in many new ways. But having a keyboard on your laptop computer or iPad doesn’t make you a novel writer; therefore everyone can take a photograph but may not necessarily make an iconic image.
Share us about your design process on creating your photo artworks. How long it is to get the end product?
For the W Hotels there is often a very tight schedule before every opening event. The last project in Verbier was the most challenging with only one month from initial meeting to final installation of the artworks.
What do you think is the trend for this year in terms of photo artworks? Or is there such a thing?
For me working in the so-called ‘new media’ means not just working for the internet on little screens. Printing my photos on materials such as dinner plates, fabrics and large-scale panels and arranging them in permanent installations is very exciting. And with the 3d printing there are many new ways to explore.