About Hans Pieterse
If I had to describe myself by using keywords
If I had to describe myself by using keywords, then creativity, inventivity, and craftsmanship would be high on the list. And experience. My interest in photography emerged when I was 15 years old. I was at a car show full of great cars from the 50’s, and was struck by the sheer beauty of their shapes and lines. I took my first photograph at that show. My older brother helped me develop my passion for photography. I had my own darkroom when I was really young, and by the time I was sixteen I knew I wanted to do this for a living.
After completing the Fotovakschool in The Hague, I landed my first internship at a very good advertising photographer: Dirk Karsten. This was a valuable learning experience, and taught me all about the authentic craftsmanship of the profession. After my time there, I started for myself and quickly landed Nike as a customer. For the last 20 years, I’ve been working out of my photography studio in Amsterdam.
My studio is spacious and very well equipped
Which enables me to create any desired setting. I see lighting technique as one of my strong suits. By using my arsenal of flash and artificial lights, flags, spots, mirrors, and Magic Arms I’m able to manipulate light in a virtually limitless number of ways. I’m able to create the most bright daylight as well as any dreamlike ambience; this is a world in which anything is possible.
For most of my studio work I use my technical camera in combination with a digital Leaf background. I do, however, still very much enjoy working with my older, digital Leica M9. A far more ‘primitive’ camera with beautiful lenses, on which all the settings have to be changed by hand. Excellent quality and a pure joy to work with!
I see my studio as a laboratory or operation room: clean and full of technical possibilities. I insure that the object to be photographed is dust free by using compressed air; an almost surgical process. I learnt my craft during the analog age, when cleaning up dust particles through photo editing software just wasn’t possible. “I have never seen images this clean before” is a phrase that has been uttered many times by various editors.
Here in this clean, inspiring setting, I strive to find that single, perfect image which captures precisely that which needs to be communicated.