In our contemporary culture, in which we are conditioned to form an opinion about things according to an image, rather than the thing itself, photography has become an excellent means of communication. A medium, like language, through which it is possible to explain things, express feelings, exchange ideas, through which you can spread knowledge or talk nonsense, write novels or make shopping lists. In Nothing is Real, fashion- and portrait photographer Bart van Leeuwen describes his vision on photography. By way of analysis and a number of case-histories from his life long career, he provides us with an easy way to a clear interpretation of the images you're looking at, which can lead to a better understanding of what you're viewing. Don't expect a manual on shutter speeds or focal distances, nor a guidebook to digital editing, but a useful tool to discover some important issues concerning emotion and credibility, two of the most important elements determining the expressiveness of a picture. The fundamental idea always stays the same: communication. By looking closely and asking yourself what a particular image communicates, you're a long way down the road.
About the Author: Bart van Leeuwen (Amsterdam, 1950), born in a family of musicians and painters, published his first pictures in Dutch underground magazine Hitweek in 1967, graduated from the University for Applied Photography in The Hague, NL in 1969 and started to work as a freelance photographer in 1971. Inspired by film noir, Italian neorealism and photographers like Bourdin, Brassaï, Kertész and Lartigue, he developed a narrative, cinematographic style, linking fiction and reality. 'Fashion photography is more than taking pictures of dresses. Because fashion not only refers to style of dress and hair and make-up. It also includes art, language, cuisine, literature, architecture, music and even thought, popular in a culture at any given time. Zeitgeist. Omnipresent, constantly changing, reflecting our time.' He travelled the world for magazines like Avenue, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Esquire, i-D, Kult, Marie-Claire, Playboy, Sunday Times, Viva and Wallpaper and companies such as ABN, Agnès B, Barclays, Bilderberg, Bijenkorf, CBS, Harrods, ING, Levi's, Matinique, Philips, RCA, René Lezard, Sara Lee, Woolmark and Volvo, shooting fashion stories, advertising campaigns and portraits. Andy Warhol, Bob Geldof, Candy Dulfer, Carice van Houten, Dizzy Gillespie, Freddy Mercury, Giorgio Armani, Grace Jones, Herman Brood, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jerry Hall, John Cale, Nina Hagen, Sylvia Kristel and Wim T. Schippers are among the celebrities he photographed. 'Fashion photography itself has its fashions. To avoid these ever changing trends, I always tried to include a timeless, universal human element in my pictures.' He has won several awards ( ADCN i.a. ) and gave lectures on photography at academies in Amsterdam ( Rietveld ), Rotterdam ( WdKA ) and Bruxelles ( St. Lukas ). Van Leeuwen lived in Amsterdam, New York and Paris. Due to a neuromuscular disorder he retired in 2005 and now lives with his wife and son just outside of Amsterdam.