Bart van Leeuwen
| Bart van Leeuwen | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
5 May 1950 Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Died | 17 June 2017 (aged 67) |
| Residence | Netherlands |
| Occupation | Photographer, author |
| Years active | 1967–2005 |
| Website | www.bartvanleeuwenphotography.com |
Bart van Leeuwen (Amsterdam, 5 February 1950 — 17 June 2017) was a Dutch photographer and author. He published his first pictures in 1967, graduated from the School for Professional Photography in The Hague in 1969 and started to work as a freelance photographer in 1971. Inspired by film noir, Italian neorealism and photographers like Avedon, Brassaï, Frank, Kertész, Lartigue, Newton and Penn he developed a narrative, cinematographic style, linking facts and fiction. He published "Nabelichting", an autobiographical novel, in 2012, and "Niets is Echt", a book about photography and reality, in 2015. Due to a neuromuscular disorder he ceased the creation of new photographic works in 2005 and until his death lived with his wife and son just outside Amsterdam.
Van Leeuwen has had much critical acclaim over the course of his career. He has received multiple awards and has often been asked to teach by art schools and universities.
Hannah Hör writes: 'A fashion photographer who completely rewrote the rules of his trade, using city streets as expressive backdrops, offering an almost casual perspective on cutting-edge fashion designs, and favouring coincidence over carefully crafted poses, Bart van Leeuwen is a master of his profession. His body of work is an intoxicating journey into sensual metropolises like Naples and through fashion capitals such as New York and Paris. The Dutch artist captures the poetic stories of everyday life with cinematographic elegance, drawing inspiration from the contrast-rich style of Film Noir and from Italian neorealism.
[...]
Van Leeuwen’s photographic oeuvre is characterised by chance and spontaneity. Whether shooting Andy Warhol during a workout in the factory or capturing Freddy Mercury, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Grace Jones as they happened to stand opposite him: “I always tried to be open to coincidences, not restricting myself to a pre-defined concept, to find things I wasn’t even looking for but that were actually better than I could have imagined.” Van Leeuwen’s photographs can be found in the private collections of fashion designers such as Thierry Mugler or Christian Lacroix, as well as in the Andy Warhol museum in Pittsburgh. '
Van Leeuwen has worked for magazines like Avenue, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Esquire, Harpers Bazaar, i-D, Kult, Marie-Claire, Oor, Playboy, Sunday Times, Viva and Wallpaper and companies such as Agnès B, Barclays, Bilderberg, Bijenkorf, CBS, Harrods, ING, Levi’s, Matinique, Philips, RCA, René Lezard, Sara Lee, Woolmark and Volvo, shooting fashion stories, advertising campaigns and portraits.Andy Warhol, Bob Geldof, Candy Dulfer, Carice van Houten, Dizzy Gillespie, Dolores Olmedo, Freddie Mercury, Giorgio Armani, Grace Jones, Herman Brood, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jerry Hall, John Cale, Nina Hagen and Sylvia Kristel are among the celebrities he photographed. Some of Van Leeuwen's published work includes:
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Wikipedia