Hendrick Kerstens
Dutch, 1956-

Paper Roll, 2008
chromatic print
39 3/8 x 31 1/2 in.

SBMA, Purchased with funds provided by PhotoFuture
2009.13



Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Jan Vermeer, c. 1665

In his own words Kerstens said, "Paula is my only child so photography is a way to keep her close, a way to keep her childhood with me while she is becoming an adult woman. It's also a way of dealing with my fear of losing her."

RESEARCH PAPER

Hendrik Kerstens was born in The Hague, Netherlands in 1956. He continues to live and work in Amsterdam. He began his career as a wine importer but his flourishing business did not feed his creative spirit. By 1995, Hendrik Kerstens quit his career in the wine business to pursue photography professionally.

Kerstens is a self-taught photographer whose career began with the birth of his daughter, Paula in 1987. She is the only child of he and his wife Anna. Like many new parents, he began to chronicle her life. Each developmental moment is special and, as those of us who are parents know we create a sense of immortality as we freeze those moments in time. Paula became his model and muse for almost all his portraiture. Over time, the photographs became a project of the Kerstens family. Mother, Anna, is a cosmetician and she oversees the styling and make-up. Paula, as she became older, had more input as the model in the ultimate outcome of the picture.

The photographs are almost always created in Hendrik Kerstens home in the Pijp neighborhood of Amsterdam. He uses few technical aids, relying mainly on the daylight streaming through the windows into his atelier. Paper Roll is a fine example of Kerstens' style. Kerstens describes his photographic creations as a process of elimination: the elimination of ever more pictorial stylistic elements in order to arrive at a core. Paper Roll is typical of his Paula portraits where the dark backgrounds and wintry northern-style lighting highlight every detail of her face and porcelain skin. His subject is depicted in silent isolation as her eyes stare out beyond the viewer.

Hendrik Kerstens work clearly show the influence of early Flemish Primitives such as Petrus Christus, Jan van Eyck, and more specifically, Jan Vermeer. (See Girl With a Pearl Earring). But upon closer inspection we see the sense of humor Kerstens brings to his work making it very much of the 21 st Century. In "Paper Roll" Paula, the porcelain beauty, stares silently out from underneath her turbaned head. Yet, as we study the turban we see it is an elaborate toilet paper wrap anchored by two nearly empty rolls. Similarly, in "Bag 2007" The crisp white bonnet is actually a common white plastic grocery bag.

Today Hendrik Kerstens photographs in monumental formats of up to 5 feet X 4 feet and they are sold for high prices all around the world. The Witzenhausen Gallery of Amsterdam and New York City represents him. An extensive collection of Paula Portraits can be seen at their website: www.witzenhausengallery.nl

Prepared for the SBMA Docent Council by Andrea Gallo
Bibliography

• Interview with Roger MC Clure 2008

• Maniere Fiamminga

Maartje van den Heuvel: Photo historian and curator of photography for the University of Leiden Special Collections

• Utata Tribal Photography - www.utata.org/salon/19583.php

• Artnews March 2009

• Independent UK ART November 2009, Ben Okri

• Domus #914 May 2008 Girl with plastic shopping bag on head

• The Art Newspaper #199 February 2009 "The shift to new financial realities"



Undated Kerstens self-portrait