HANS VERDUIN
// Hans lives in the Netherlands, and he enjoys capturing beautiful objects, or, as he puts it, capturing objects beautifully? He sees it as a challenge to make the ordinary special. There is nothing ordinary in what he shared with us though. The Dutch artist Harmke Zwep makes beautiful ceramic art, and Hans was fascinated by the delicacy of her creations.
In a previous occupation, Hans was a mechanical engineering and information technology expert, but since retirement he has dedicated himself entirely to photography. Hans sees himself more as an observer than a creator: he tries to interpret a situation and to translate it into a photograph that tells a little more than the situation itself. “I love the work of Henri de Toulouse – Lautrec. Once I hope to photograph as he painted,” Hans says. Hans is a member of Fotoclub Nunspeet, and the Fotografen Collectief Zutphen in the Netherlands. “I am from the analog generation, Saturday night in the lab, and after a night hard work, so so results. Now I enjoy the digital processing,” he says, referring to the editing software as his “darkroom”.
“Working with ceramics is and remains a voyage of discovery. ”
Harmke Zwep
What draws you to the arts?
“Art is for me an inspirator and energiser.”
What impresses you most about the work of this ceramic artist?
“The patience she has to create out of those small elements surprising and lively shapes in almost monochrome colours.”
The ceramic artist Harmke Zwep has always enjoyed working with her hands. Apart from a few introductory ceramic classes, she taught herself through experimentation and a journey of discovery. She enjoys trying out new techniques. Harmke likes repeated patterns. In her work, one often finds multiple “copies” of the same item, put together to form a larger piece.
For her large artworks she uses regular clay, but for smaller pieces she likes to work with porcelain clay. She rarely uses glazes. Porcelain is more delicate and allows her to make almost translucent creations. It is these elements that are brought to perfect light by Hans´s beautiful low-key, high contrast black and white photos.
You can see some colour versions of these photos on Harmke Zwep´s instagram page, but, Hans says, “I like colour pictures, they contain a lot of information, but I love B&W photos, they give a lot of information…”.
Images may be cropped for layout. Click on the photos to see the full image.
ALL PHOTOS © HANS VERDUIN
To see more of his photography visit Hans´s Instagram page. The artist also has a website and her own Instagram page, if you want to see more of her creations.
SPECTACULUM MAGAZINE 
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[…] Verduin´s photography with a documentary of the work of ceramic artist Harmke Zwep, which you can see here in the magazine. To see more of his photography visit Hans´s Instagram […]