Hayo Baan's Fotovakschool Study Portfolio

Content

Abstract

To have a record of progress during your studies at the Fotovakschool, you are required to maintain a so called Study Portfolio, containing (a selection of) the work developed as part of the studies as well as notes and other stuff.

Module Results

The study is divided into a number of modules, each of which has one or more assignments, required to pass the module. Apart from the module assignments usualy additional day assignments are also given. The results as well as the specific learnings for each module can be viewed following the links below:

Notes

Miscellaneous notes of things that inspired me during my study.

Interesting Photographers

Interesting Locations

Interesting Websites

Photography Agencies

Miscellaneous/Information

Interesting Books – Photographers

Interesting Books – Photography

Interesting Books – Image Editing and Manipulation

Interesting Publications

Exhibitions

Here are a few short reports of relevant Exhibitions I visited.

12/06/2010: FOAM, Amsterdam

Four exhibitions:

12/06/2010: Oude Kerk, Amsterdam – World Press Photo 2009

This year's World Press Photo exhibition, with again some pretty good photos.

21/04/2010: Fotomuseum, Rotterdam

QUICKSCAN NL#01. First exhibition in a series QUICKSCAN NL, about the most recent developments in the photography in The Netherlands. In this first edition approximately 25 photographers and artists show their work, not older than two years and mostly for the first time on show.

Though some of the work was great, I didn't think it was all that revolutionary…

21/04/2010: Kunsthal, Rotterdam

René Burri, Retrospectief. Overview of René Burri's work. The more “graphic” the work, the more I liked it!

04/04/2010: Gemeente Museum, Den Haag

Kandinsky and Der Blaue Reiter. In the early 20th century, a group of artists caused a huge furore in the Munich art world. Calling themselves Der Blaue Reiter, the artists produced expressive, brightly coloured, lyrical paintings which were to prompt the development of Expressionism in Germany. The core members of the group were Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky and kindred spirit Franz Marc.

09/02/2010: FOAM, Amsterdam

Guided tour of the Alexander Rodchenko exhibition. The extra information provided during the tour certainly had added value!

02/01/2010: Museon, Den Haag – The Wildlife Photographer of the Year

All the images of the winners, runners up, and commendations. A lot of beautiful photography.

15/12/2009: Fotomuseum, Den Haag

Sally Man's The Family And The Land is a selection of prints from five of her most famous series: Immediate Family, Virginia, Deep South, What Remains, and Faces.

Contrary to my expectation, I was very pleased and impressed by her series Immediate Family, a very open view on the growing up of her children. The use of the (by nature imperfect) collodion process really added to the “feeling” of the photographs. While this process definitely also added to the “experience” of her landscape work, I was much less impressed by it. To me, she clearly is much better at portraying human emotions. What Remains (a series on death, showing decaying bodies), though at some point pretty gross, was very good again. The collodion process, again, really added to the images' atmosphere. With the last series of the exhibition, Faces, I think she went completely overboard with the process, resulting in a series of vague “portraits”, much too vague to my liking.

09/12/2009: Huis Marseille, Amsterdam

Exhibition of the very impressing series “Oil” by Edward Burtynsky.

29/11/2009: Gemeente Museum, Den Haag

Exhibition of the work of Cézanne, Picasso, and Mondriaan, showing the development of their styles as well as the influence the had on each other (and others).

17/11/2009: FOAM, Amsterdam

Main Exhibition: Sanne Sannes (1937-1967) – Darkness & Light. Series of (erotic) images of women. Grain, long exposure, and soft focus all contribute to the feeling you are looking at images taken by a man quite obsessed. Beautiful in a way, but also quite disturbing… Interesting nevertheless.

13/10/2009: FOAM, Amsterdam

Main exhibition this time was the series “In the Shadow of Things” by Leonie Purchas, winner of the KLM Paul Huf award.

In the Shadow of Things is the story of the unusual life of Bron (Purchas' mother), husband David and their young son Jake who live in a remote house surrounded by woods and fields. Bron has suffered from mild depression for years, an illness which has developed itself into an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD for Bron manifests itself as a fear of dirt and contamination. Thus dominating her daily life heavilly. Meaning that she finds it extremely difficult to deal with the demands of normal household things. Even though the family has moved house twelve years ago, most of the boxes still remain packed and sealed. On top of the boxes, piles of clothes, bags and other things have gathered over time, rendering much of the house unusable.

This all Purchas photographed in a highly personal and emotional manner. The vulnerability of family members (including the photographer herself) is apparant in many of the images. The use of projections, photographs and sound and film recordings from the family archive all add to the impact of the exhibition.

Simply put: very impressive! And while sometimes I do not see why a series/photographer was awarded, this series really is good. The images really tell a story and are clearly taken by a photographer; not only does she show an eye for pleasing compositions, she also makes good use of (camera) techniques such as depth of field, motion blur, etc. All to the greater good of making an, emotional, impact.

30/09/2009: Noorderlicht International Photofestival, Groningen

See Noorderlicht website for more information.

01/09/2009: FOAM, Amsterdam

30/08/2009: FoMu, Antwerp (Belgium)

The Antwerp Photography Museum is a great visit. Do take your time though as you'll need it if you want to see everything they have on exhibition (and you most likely will!). Today they had a number of exhibitions:

As you can see, plenty of beatiful, inspiring, moving things for the beholder. We will certainly be visiting the museum the next time we visit Antwerp!

08/08/2009: De Pruimengaard, Wijk bij Duurstede

Another visit to the yearly exhibit at the sculpture garden in Wijk bij Duurstede. This time, especially the works of the German scrap metal artist (and musician) Diedel Klöver, caught our attention.

13/07/2009: Taigh Chearsabhagh, Lochmaddy (North Uist, Scotland) – Erskine Beveridge

Overview of the work of (amatuer) photographer Erskine Beveridge who documented life in Scotland between 1880 and 1919.

16/06/2009: Oude Kerk, Amsterdam – World Press Photo 2009

This year's World Press Photo exhibition was a pleasant surprise compared to last year: the images were of much much higher quality!

27/05/2009: Stadsarchief Amsterdam – NY Perspectives

A small exhibition of New York Photographers showing us their view on Amsterdam. The exhibition showed work of Richard Rothman, Gus Powell, Joshua Lutz, and Carl Wooley. This last one, definitely my favourite.

01/05/2009: FOAM, Amsterdam – Richard Avedon

Excellent exhibition of Richard Avedon's work. Seeing a lot of his work together, you really understand what makes Avedon's work so extraordinary!

29/04/2009: Museum Jan van der Togt – Gerry Hurkmans

A very small exhibition of Dutch landscapes by Gerry Hurkmans.

30/01/2009: Museon, Den Haag – The Wildlife Photographer of the Year/Artic: Why Polar Bears do not eat Penguins

A visit to the Museon with two beautiful exhibitions:

03/12/2008: FOAM, Amsterdam – Helen Levit, Vivianne Sassen, Kees Sherer, Erik van der Weijde

Another short visit to FOAM. Four photographers where on exhibition this time:

21/09/2008: Naarden – World Press Photo 2008

Of most of the exhibited photos you could see why they were picked as winners or runners up. There were, however, also many pictures of which we could not figure out why these were picked. In this respect the most blatant example was the series of photos taken of Italian amusement parks. While the story behind them was to illustrate that family outings have become very commercialised over time, the images where of no special quality; anyone could have taken them.

This is something I noticed with more of the pictures shown: no special skill, timing, or “eye” required to take them. This, in a way, is a disappointment for me as I believe that good photos require skill (especially in the seeing and catching the right moment). Ah well, maybe I miss something here…

16/09/2008: van Zoetendaal and FOAM, Amsterdam

Please see my report as written as part of Module 01 – Basics.

07/09/2008: De Pruimengaard, Wijk bij Duurstede

It is always a good thing to get inspired by seeing and doing new things. With this in mind we visited “De Pruimengaard”, a sculpture garden in Wijk bij Duurstede.

“De Pruimengaard” is only opened one month a year, and today was actually the last day. Each year they show different work by different artists, so it is never the same.

Very interesting to see so many different styles and forms! Lots of prickling and beautiful work, and of course also a lot of boring, ugly work. Funny thing is though that when you think something is really ugly or boring and that really no one in their right mind would buy it, you find out it has just been sold…

Proves yet again that taste is, luckily, not an objective thing.

Development Plan

My Goals – Start of the study

At the start of the study, I have defined the following goals for myself and
the studies:
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