Kimono series - A conversation with Breitner

Kimono series - A conversation with Breitner

This series was born from three main points that characterise my photography. I endeavour to create photographs that are like Classical or Impressionist paintings; I seek to transport the viewer to a different time through capturing unique moments in unique spaces and experience a sense of beauty and timelessness. Since the beginning of my career, antique Kimono’s have been a recurrent theme in my work. 

The images of “Kimono series - A conversation with Breitner” were photographed in December 2020. All my work is photographed on film, this adds to the mystery and the magic of the images I ultimately want to make. The wonderful opportunity arose to photograph in the former studio of the artist George Hendrik Breitner in Amsterdam. Fortuitously, a few days before the shoot, I was gifted this green floral kimono, that I estimate is a 100 years old. I was very excited to be able to work in an environment where such beautiful work was made.

Although Breitner’s kimono series were a source of inspiration, my intention was not to recreate the same scene. The incredible light in the studio, the model, the different colours and textures of the fabrics, and the kimono together created a painting scene by itself. It felt like we traveled in time to a wintery day in late 1800s Amsterdam. 

A question I have been asking myself lately is why I choose to create dreamy images? Why would one aspire to create photographs that are like paintings? I am still searching for an answer. But perhaps it is a marriage between using the camera as a tool like a paintbrush and the powerful pull I feel to the past. My way of starting a conversation with the artists of the periods I admire. My yearning for beauty amidst our current social and political climate. 

An external view of my work could be characterised as an escape from our world into the beautifully painted past. However, for me I do not experience the making or the viewing as an escape. For me I am attempting to energetically connect myself to the artists, the spaces, textures and faces that can be characterised by timelessness.