Dutch Photographers since 1938

Graaff, Cok de

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Short description

Cok de Graaff was one of the first professional commercial photographers in the Netherlands. As well as advertising material, his archive contains photographs commissioned by dailies and weeklies, portraits, nature and private pictures.
De Graaff more... »

Cok de Graaff was one of the first professional commercial photographers in the Netherlands. As well as advertising material, his archive contains photographs commissioned by dailies and weeklies, portraits, nature and private pictures.
De Graaff grew up in an artistic milieu and began to photograph as a boy. At the age of 24 he took a job with the Polygoon film company during the 1928 Olympics, winding reels and drying photos. He then became a press photographer for Polygoon in Amsterdam. His interests, however, ran more along the lines of New Photography as propagated by, among others, Paul Schuitema and Piet Zwart; in his spare time he began to experiment in this field.
In 1930 he was offered a job by the director of the Sell More advertising agency and moved into a studio on Prinseneiland in Amsterdam. Here, in the first studio for advertisement photography in the Netherlands, he spent two years doing commercial photography for Sell More's clients, who included the Van Haaren footwear company, Verkade confectionery and the Van Houten cocoa factory.
In 1932 De Graaff decided to strike out on his own and opened his own studio in Amsterdam. His friend Cas Oorthuys, who had a strong influence on his political and artistic development, took over his old studio on Prinseneiland. De Graaff joined the anti-fascist Artists' Union for the Defence of Cultural Rights (BKVK). Occasional signs of his social engagement began to appear in his work.
De Graaff kept many of his clients from Sell More, including Van Houten. New clients were the advertising agencies Van Alfen and A. de la Mar and the Erdal shoe polish factories. Forced by the 1930s economic crisis to close his Amsterdam studio, he set up as a freelance photographer in Blaricum in the Gooi region. For the next two years he worked for various companies and illustrated magazines. He also turned to portraiture, photographing chiefly children in their home surroundings. Like the portrait photographs he took of several actresses, his pictures of children demonstrate to his unaffected, candid approach.
A special category in De Graaff's work is nature photography. In the 1930s he and the cabaret artist and journalist Eduard Gubbins-Dorenbos frequently roamed around Flanders, where De Graaff took pictures of the local inhabitants and especially of the countryside.
The rise of antisemitism prompted Cok de Graaff and his Jewish wife to emigrate to South Africa in 1938. He intended to earn a livelihood playing the violin and reporting for South African newspapers and a leading Dutch daily, the Algemeen Handelsblad. One of his reportages, 'The Kaffirs', being about a black section of the population, did not make the press. It is however one of the most interesting items in Graaff's oeuvre.
As a result of his critical statements about the political situation in South Africa, his resident's permit was not renewed, and the family was forced to return to the Netherlands. They lived in Laren, near Hilversum, where De Graaff worked for AVRO radio. Because of that station's antisemitic sympathies he resigned in 1940. During the German occupation he was indirectly involved in the resistance, taking passport photographs for people in hiding and reproducing illegal reports; he also took pictures of children and interiors. In 1942 he showed work at 'Stad en Land' (town and country), an exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. After the liberation he joined the Federation of Gooi Artists. Up to 1956 - the year of the Soviet invasion of Hungary - he was an active member of the Dutch Communist Party.
The postwar revival of commercial photography brought De Graaff a number of regular clients again. They included the office furniture manufacturer and printer Ahrend Globe, whose in-house photographer he became, producing catalogues, leaflets, advertisements and calendars. He also published in the Algemeen Handelsblad, De Telegraaf and De Prins newspapers.
In the 1960s De Graaff began to cut down on his professional activities. He concentrated more on nature photography and in 1970 stopped working as a professional photographer. « less...

Place/date of birth

Blaricum 1904-05-30 

Place/date of death

1988-04-21 

Nationality

Nederlands 

Discipline

fotograaf 

Subject

natuur, landschappen, industrie, figuurvoorstellingen, portretfotografie, kinderen, reclamefotografie, fotojournalistiek
 

Product

 

Material

 

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Other websites about this photographer

 

 

Go to this photographer in RKD-Artists 

Latest editing

2011-10-26 (RZ) 

Places/periods of working

Amsterdam
Vlaanderen (regio)
Blaricum
Zuid-Afrika
Laren (Noord-Holland)
 

Publications

 

Education

 

Pupil of

 

Teacher of

 

Winner of

 

Member of

Bond van Kunstenaars ter Verdediging van de Kulturele Rechten (BKVK)
GKf beroepsvereniging van fotografen 

See also

  

Sources

 

Additional remarks