Dutch Photographers since 1938

Zoetmulder, Steef

• 
  Steef Zoetmulder/Nederlands Fotomuseum, Gebroken lijn I (1943)
• 
  Steef Zoetmulder/Nederlands Fotomuseum, Reflexion II (1946)

Name variations

 

Family relationships

 

Short description

Steef Zoetmulder practised two kinds of photography alongside one another: his publicity assignments and his free work. Not an exceptional combination, but in his case the two were so closely related as to be virtually exchangeable.
Although his more... »

Steef Zoetmulder practised two kinds of photography alongside one another: his publicity assignments and his free work. Not an exceptional combination, but in his case the two were so closely related as to be virtually exchangeable.
Although his teachers at the Rotterdam academy were Jan Kamman and Gerrit Kiljan, it was Subjective Photography, not New Photography, that appealed to him most. His entire oeuvre bears witness to a preference for decorative images with a tendency towards abstraction.
Apart from a brief interruption, Steef Zoetmulder has always been an independent commercial photographer. Before the war his clients included the Roelants printing company, Tweka and various distilleries in Schiedam. After the war he gradually received more corporate and industrial commissions for photographs for circulars, magazines, jubilee publications, record sleeves and calendars. Among his new clients were the Voormolen contracting company, Volker Bouwmij, various architectural offices, the furniture manufacturer Ouwenbroek, the Nijgh and Van Ditmar advertising agency, De Hoop concrete, the Nederlandse Dagblad Unie press concern and Spanjersberg Brothers, a publishing company. Zoetmulder destroyed most of his commercial archive himself.
For his assignments and free work he preferred to experiment in the studio. He would combine various shapes (angular, round, hard or soft) with vases, glassware or other objects to form still life arrangements. Occasionally he combined portraits with shapes or objects. The appearance of the photographs was determined by the effects of the linear patterns, the lighting and the suggestive perspective. His penchant for photo-montage is related to this kind of work. « less...

Place/date of birth

Schiedam 1911-09-10 

Place/date of death

2004-09-04 

Nationality

Nederlands 

Discipline

fotograaf 

Subject

stadsgezichten, architectuurfotografie, industrie, stillevens, modefotografie, reclamefotografie, autonome fotografie
 

Product

 

Material

 

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Other websites about this photographer

 

 

Go to this photographer in RKD-Artists 

Latest editing

2011-12-09 (svw) 

Places/periods of working

Rotterdam
 

Publications

 

Education

 

Pupil of

 

Teacher of

 

Winner of

 

Member of

AFVR (Amateur Fotografen Vereniging Rotterdam)
Vereniging Beroepsfotografen Nederland (BFN)
Nederlandsche Fotografen Kunstkring (NFK) 

See also

  

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Additional remarks