Hans Withoos
Biografie
Hans Withoos (Son en Breugel, 1962)
Hans Withoos career spans more than twenty years in which he satisfyingly combined his commissioned work with his autonomous work. Although highly successful in his commercial and international fashion work with clients from Brasil to Spain to Italy, the United States and Morocco, he also is prolific in his autonomous work, making many photography series over the years.mostly situated in recognizable places and cities around the world.His fascination is with beauty in all its aspects, The beauty of drama, the beauty of the body and the beauty of light as well as As the beauty of suffering in seen in his serie Nocturnal Delight based on the seven deadly sins..) the beauty of strength seen in his serie New Romantics and Lady with her golden toys..The beauty of symbolism in his newest work Withoos meets Withoos, stilllifes Even this stilllifes are recognizable for his work, same dramatic light and full off layering. Hans Withoos photography is set in the world of abundance and artifice--the smell of decadence wafts towards the viewer. It is a world simultaneously familiar and different. In Withoos exaggerated scenes, the figures crowding the images become archetypes, and the viewer is overcome by a sense of alienation. The work is full of layered, staged images with idiosyncratic aesthetics. Sometimes the photographs evoke emotions related to suffering, sensuality and hidden oppressiveness; at other times the images depict the complete opposite and are deliberately emotionless.The artist describes his oeuvre: The images dont show a critical perspective, but rather an observant one. The way I work: After creating an idea, I work quite pragmatic looking for location models styling etcetera, After everything is arranged There exist new ideas, for the why and how in the final picture, But still working I m totally open for changement when something finally can be better an other way So you can call it staged photography, which it certainly is, But there will always be some surprices or unexpected things visible in his work. Then , after shooting, His works are like a painter Layer over layer, He creates in his mind and on his computer That takes sometimes weeks before a certain picture is finished
