Aart Klein

Aart Klein (August 2, 1909 - October 31, 2001) was a Dutch photographer born in Amsterdam. His photos mostly consisted of black and white landscapes with a graphic style, but later transitioned into portraiture. Klein said that his photographs were a white on black, not black on white because “if you don't do anything you get a black image. Things only happen when you open the shutter; then you make a drawing in white”.

Career

Klein began working at the Netherlands' premier photo press agency, Polygoon in the 1930s,

Klein spent hours in dark rooms creating the contrast or effect that he had in his mind. One of his many talents was the ability to photograph birds as if he positioned them himself. This talent led to one of his assistants saying that he carried birds in his pocket. However, this talent was due to Klein’s ability to wait until the right moment where the outcome matched his vision. He would then spend his time in the dark rooms to create his contrasting colors. His work entitled Zebra (1957) strongly shows this practice because of the sharp etching across the picture that creates an almost hypnotizing pattern.

In 1956 Klein decided to leave Patricam Pictures and venture into his own studio. In this studio he created what are considered his most famous images of the Delta engineering project. The theme of the book seemed to be a continuation of his photography during the flood, which was the human struggle against the force of water. He focused on the juxtaposition of infrastructure and the natural landscape of the Netherlands. These works shared with his previous work the emphasis on stylized patterns of darkness and light. He depicted the progress of his country in a personal, yet optimistic way.

After this photo series ended Klein worked for the newspaper Algemeen Handelsblad and other photography companies. Toward the end of his life, around the 1980s, he traveled with aid from grants and the government, but his activity as a photographer began to dwindle.

Klein died in 2001, at the age of 92.

Awards and honors

1982 Klein received the Capi-Lux Alblas Prize 1986, an exhibition was mounted in the Netherlands 1996 Klein received a fund for the VAD and Architecture prize