Emiel van Moerkerken
Mattie Boom
Abstract
Emiel van Moerkerken enjoys international renown thanks to the surrealistic photographs he produced in the 1930s. With these works, he earned a place among the avant-garde of twentieth-century art history, instead of a permanent position in the history of Dutch photography. As a relative outsider, Van Moerkerken rarely involves himself in discussions of this nature. His interest focuses on the subjective quality of the photographic medium, which he treats primarily as an instrument of his own associations and discoveries.
Biography
|
1916 |
Emiel van Moerkerken is born in Haarlem on 15 August as the son of Johanna Petronella Cannegieter and Pieter Hendrik van Moerkerken, a professor of cultural history, mythology, and iconography at the RABK (Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, ‘National Academy of Fine Arts’) in Amsterdam, as well as a writer of historical novels. Emiel attends the Montessori school in Haarlem, followed by the Kennemer Lyceum. From an early age, he takes art excursions to Paris, accompanied by his parents. |
|
1931-‘32 |
Van Moerkerken suspends his secondary school studies at the Kennemer Lyceum for a period of one year in order to attend the Odenwaldschule (‘Odenwald School’), near Heppenheim, Germany. Here he takes numerous photographss as well as his first film shots. In his semi-autobiographical novel, De IJsprinses (‘The Ice Princess’, 1982), Van Moerkerken describes the atmosphere and the conversations conducted at this ‘free school’. |
|
1933 |
Van Moerkerken leaves the Kennemer Lyceum for good. Under the direction of Willem Bon, he studies to become a filmmaker at the Film-Technische Leergang (‘Film-Technical Study’) school in Amsterdam. He meets Joris Ivens. |
|
1933-‘39 |
Starting in 1935, Van Moerkerken works as an assistant to the cameraman Andor von Barsy on various films, including Lentelied (‘Spring Song’) by Simon Koster. He then does camera and editing work for Max de Haas on films such as Honderd jaar spoorwegen (‘One-Hundred Years of Railroads’, 1939). His first autonomous film, entitled Sonate ’34, has an experimental character. |
|
1935-‘38 |
Van Moerkerken develops an interest in Surrealism. During various visits to Paris— where he makes many photographs—he meets André Breton, Georges Hugnet, Hans Bellmer, and Brassaï, whose photos he admires. In this period, he produces both surrealistic and regular photos of Amsterdam and Paris. |
|
1938 |
In January 1938, Van Moerkerken attends the Exposition Internationale du Surrealisme (‘International Exhibition of Surrealism’) in Paris. In June, Van Moerkerken and Chr. J. van Geel, a poet, organise their own exhibition of Surrealism in Van Moerkerken’s room on the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 256 in Amsterdam. |
|
1941-‘44 |
During the war, Van Moerkerken publishes surrealistic photographs in De Schone Zakdoek (‘The Pretty Handkerchief’), a magazine published by his friends Theo van Baaren and Gertrude Pape. In 1942, Van Moerkerken takes the ‘State Exam’ for the HBS-B (Hogere Burgerschool, an upper-level secondary school). |
|
1945-‘50 |
Van Moerkerken takes photographs in Germany, London and Paris. He also does camerawork in the Netherlands, as well for the film Bezet gebied (‘Occupied Territory’). In 1947, Uitgeverij Van Oorschot publishes the photobook Reportages in licht en schaduw (‘Reportages in Light and Schadow’). |
|
1948 |
In 1948, Van Moerkerken and several other foreign filmmakers are granted a Unesco fellowship. He also visits the British Film Producers Association. He witnesses film shoots of the The Third Man as a ‘spectator’ at Shepperton Studios. |
|
1950-‘59 |
In 1950, Van Moerkerken begins studying psychology at the University of Amsterdam. He takes photographs in Amsterdam, on the Wadden Islands, and other locations in the Netherlands. In 1957, his photobook Amsterdam is published. Bruna publishes Van Moerkerken’s pocket photobook Meisjes van Nederland (‘Girls of the Netherlands’) in 1959. In 1958, Van Moerkerken completes his studies in psychology. He earns a living with television shoots and making reportages for American and Canadian television on assignment for Max de Haas’ company, Visiefilm (‘Vision Film’). Van Moerkerken makes the films Cuckoo Waltz (1955) and De Wadlopers (‘The Island Walkers’, 1959). Under the pseudonym Eric Terduyn, Van Moerkerken publishes stories in various literary magazines. In 1957, his first collection of stories Samen uit – samen thuis (‘Out Together – Together Home’) is published under the same pseudonym. |
|
1960-‘81 |
Starting in 1960, Van Moerkerken works as a cameraman and a director for the VPRO and VARA broadcasting companies. Besides making reportages abroad, he also works on television programme series, such as Spiegel der Kunsten (‘Mirror of the Arts’), Filmvenster (‘Film Window’) and Ziek zijn, beter worden (‘Being Ill, Getting Better’). From 1967 to 1979, Van Moerkerken is an instructor of filmmaking technique at the Nederlandse Film Academie (‘Netherlands Film Academy’) in Amsterdam. From 1966 to 1981, he also holds the position of academic researcher at the Psychologisch Laboratorium (‘Psychology Laboratory’) of the University of Amsterdam. |
|
1950-‘88 |
During film shoots for the VARA and VPRO and while travelling on his own, Van Moerkerken takes photographs in countries and cities such as: Iran, Turkey, Ghana, Egypt, Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Russia, Canada, the United States, London, and Paris. |
|
1995 |
Van Moerkerken dies in this year. |
Discussion
Whereas other Dutch photographers in the 1930s—New Objectivist or Documentary—devoted themselves to capturing the day-to-day reality, Emiel van Moerkerken ‘staged’ bizarre combinations—for instance, a chopped-off thumb for on a sandwich or the head of his friend Chris van Geel in a cage—and photographed them with his camera. The work he did during these years reveals traces of International Surrealism. Like Man Ray, Hans Bellmer, Raoul Ubac, and Dora Maar, Van Moerkerken visualised the urges and associations of the sub-conscious in photographic fantasy images. Besides in photographs, he expressed his eye for the bizarre and his preference for experimentation as well in novels, stories, and in film. The later photo reportages he made in London, Paris, Amsterdam, and during his travels across Scandanavia, the Middle East, Russia, and the United States, are often more personal annotations and impressions than journalistic accounts.
Van Moerkerken shot his first photographs in 1929. His parents gave him a Leica as a gift for his fifteenth birthday in 1931. He photographed the family dog Eddeck, his father and mother, and a courtyard (‘hofje’) in the neighbourhood of his parent’s home in Haarlem. Van Moerkerken continued to use his camera when he left in 1932 to attend the Odenwaldschule in Germany, an international humanistic school. This progressive school, then under the direction of the pedagogue Paul Geheeb, revered the Bauhaus. The students were very up to date on developments in the international art of their day. The students’ interest in film, photography, and literature was stimulated at the school, and the students themselves actively worked with the new media. Van Moerkerken not only made photographs, but he also learned to make films, an activity he greatly enjoyed. One of his photos—a picturesque scene with a farmer’s wagon—was exhibited at this school.
In 1932, Van Moerkerken returned to the Netherlands and continued his schooling at the Kennemer Lyceum. During one of his trips to Paris, he and his mother stopped by the studio of Man Ray, whom they had heard was accepting students. The visit was rather stiff and formal and the lessons turned out to be too costly. In the end, Van Moerkerken chose in favour of film instead of photography and proceeded to further develop his skills in the field of filmmaking, after having received a brief training.
At home, Van Moerkerken was exposed to all kinds of art magazines through his father, Professor P.H. van Moerkerken, who taught cultural history at the RABK (Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, ‘National Academy of Fine Arts’) in Amsterdam. In the Belgian film magazine Documents 33/34, Van Moerkerken read for the first time about International Surrealism, which greatly appealed to him. In addition, he became acquainted with the works of the avant-garde through exhibitions and from books. In 1933, Van Moerkerken published additional examples of his photographic ability in the Kennemer Lyceum’s school newspaper: a portrait of a young woman in a pose à la Man Ray, the light in a living-room curtain, a New Objectivist shot of a camera lens, a pseudo-solarisation of his dog Eddeck, and several photographs taken out on the street with strong contrasts in light and shadow. In an article entitled ‘Fotokunst’ (‘Photo Art’), the writer Dolf Verspoor—a classmate and a friend—described to the paper’s readers his vision of what makes a photograph a work of art, drawing on Van Moerkerken’s photographs as a case in point. In art photography, the subject was always subordinate to the idea: the photograph—as a ‘photograph’—had to stand for something. Just as in painting, there was a distinction to be made between the various movements: the ‘pictorial, absolute, surrealistic and dramatic’. According to Verspoor, these elements were also found in the published photos of his seventeen-year-old friend Van Moerkerken, e.g. in the pseudo-solarisation: ‘the photograph of the white dog and the white shadow: a dog without its form looks strange in a black surface, [in this case] a street, which has an unlimited spatial effect. Purely surrealistic.’
Between 1933 and 1940, Van Moerkerken purchased the photobooks of L. Moholy- Nagy, Man Ray, Brassaï, Bill Brandt and Walker Evans. Both during and after his years of studying, Van Moerkerken took numerous trips to Paris on his own or with friends, attending events such as the meetings of the International Surrealism movement as well as gatherings of the Communist party. In Paris, Van Moerkerken met and became friends with Brassaï, a photographer he greatly admired. Man Ray’s influence is evident in several of Van Moerkerken’s early portraits of women. Brassaï and Brandt also inspired him, as can be observed in several photographs in his book Reportages in licht en schaduw (‘Reportages in Light and Shadow’). A fascination with the exact sciences and technology awoke Van Moerkerken’s interest in the new media: initially in photography, later in film. His first photographs were made with a 9×12 ground glass screen camera. Van Moerkerken’s initially focused on form and technique. He experimented with the effects of light and shadow and the fundamental principles of composition. In a desire to imitate the photographs he saw in the magazine Focus, he photographed a courtyard (‘hofje’) in Haarlem and a scene with a farmer’s wagon. In the later years of his study, he took ‘New Objectivist’ close-ups of his gramophone, nudes and portraits of women in the style of Man Ray. Thereafter, the influence of Surrealism came to play a role: in his film stills from the film Sonate ’34, in photomontages, and in staged scenes of free-standing objects positioned in a kind of associative interplay in relation to each other.
A desire for experimentation, which Van Moerkerken actualised in his autonomous films, is also occasionally encountered in his photography. During his study and while working as a psychology teacher, his interest in visual observation led to experiments with the ‘average’ portrait. By printing portraits of different people in a single photograph, he formed a composite portrait comprising all of their personalities. Van Moerkerken also tried to achieve a characterisation of a certain personality type by combining various aspects of one person in a commonplace portrait. In March 1938, Van Moerkerken attended the Exposition Internationale du Surrealisme (‘International Exhibition of Surrealism’) at the Galérie Beaux Arts in Paris. He returned to the Netherlands full of enthusiasm. The bizarre exhibition, and especially the unconventional art, served to rekindle his interest in surrealism. Together with Chris J. van Geel, a like-minded friend, Van Moerkerken created new objects and ‘directed’ his own surrealistic still lifes. Van Geel made compilations of objects retrieved from the junk heap, while Van Moerkerken made fantasy ‘tabletop’ still lifes, depicting, for instance, the hand of a pianist with his fingers chopped off, or a toilet bowl brush enshrined under a glass dome. They subsequently photographed these ‘objets trouvés’, along with their previous creations.
Van Moerkerken and Van Geel had initially hoped to exhibit their surrealistic playthings at an international exhibition that Kristians Tonny and Georges Hugnet were putting together in the Robert Gallery on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam. Their work failed to appeal to the organisers, however, and consequently, they decided to organise a shadow exhibition in the back room of Van Moerkerken’s home. The two young men organised an exhibition of their recent ‘objets’, photographs, as well as their older works. In attendance were several friends and acquaintances. J. Vovelle, an academic researcher of Surrealism in the Netherlands, attaches great significance to the ‘surrealistic summer’ of Van Moerkerken and Van Geel. She characterises their activities as a much more ‘sincere’ expression of Surrealism than the exhibition held at the Robert Gallery. Van Moerkerken himself describes the exhibition as ‘jest’.
Surrealism appealed to Van Moerkerken particularly as a mind-set and a way of life. The associative, playful, and subjective elements of Surrealism, in his mind, were a revelation in contrast to the pretentiousness and the ‘heaviness’ of traditional art. Surrealism as well signalled a break from middle class culture and was also closely linked to Van Moerkerken’s affinity with the political ideals of Communism.
During the war, a small circle of people continued their surrealistic activities in the form of the magazine De Schone Zakdoek (‘The Pretty Handkerchief’, an uncirculated private publication). Theo van Baaren and Gertrude Pape were the magazine’s editors. Under the pseudonym,’Eric Terduyn’, Van Moerkerken submitted the story ‘Het Schilderij’ (‘The Painting’), an exposé on film, and contributed to the collective drawings and poems gracing the magazine’s pages. Several of Van Moerkerken’s surrealistic photographs were also featured. In his article about film, Van Moerkerken (alias ‘Terduyn’) clarified in passing what he thought photography to be. In his view, it was ‘not art’, but rather a branch of the applied arts that was subjective in a natural way, and which ‘allowed for all degrees of talent, good taste, and up to a certain point, personality.’ In practice, it amounted to very little. Artistic photography was no more than ‘pretty picture making’. Even the modern photographers, ‘whose ideal is apparently that one can precisely count every pore and pimple in a portrait’, were to be regarded with distrust. Van Moerkerken believed then and still believes to this today that the value of photography lies in its subjective aspect, i.e. a personal documentation with ‘I see, I see, what you don’t see’ as its motto.
Van Moerkerken applied this same philosophy to his staged photographs as well as his photographs taken on the street. Torn-down posters and texts on the street—’la vie est belle’ (‘life is great’)—were favourite subjects. Dilapidated neighbourhoods in the city and cemeteries were places where Van Moerkerken preferred to take his photographs. Although he says he despises the ‘populist humanitarianism’ in photography, his work produced in the late 1940s and the 1950s was influenced by documentary photography. During his film work in the Netherlands and abroad, Van Moerkerken also photographed people and situations. In 1957, his documentary photographic work resulted in the book Amsterdam. The portraits in the pocket photobook Meisjes van Nederland (‘Girls of the Netherlands’, 1959), presents a characterisation of Dutch women in the 1950s. The films De Wadlopers (‘The Wad Island Walkers’), Bergtoppen in de oceaan (‘Mountaintops in the Ocean’) and IJsland zonder ijs (‘Iceland without Ice’) were made in the same period and are likewise documentary in nature.
In addition to the photographs just described, Van Moerkerken produced numerous portraits starting in 1933. Meetings with individuals and friends, often writers and artists, were photographed on a systematic basis. From an early age, he had photographed writers such as Lodewijk van Deyssel and Emile Erens in the home of his parents. Later, Van Moerkerken also photographed meetings with Menno ter Braak, E. du Perron, and Simon Vestdijk, taking individual photographs of each and all three together on a balcony on the Laan van Meerdervoort in The Hague. Portraits were also made of his circle of acquaintances in Paris, including Brassaï. With deceased writers whose work or life drew his interest, Van Moerkerken photographed the houses where they were born, where they had lived, or their graves. As such, he visited and photographed the homes of the writers Stendhal, the Marquis de Sade, and Multatuli.
For Van Moerkerken himself, these portraits of writers and artists, which were frequently used for newspaper and magazine publications, are more similar to entries in a personal diary. Keeping these meetings alive and visiting special places with a camera is also a form of location research for his semi-autobiographical stories. For his novel De IJsprinses (‘The Ice Princess’), his photographs were used virtually as academic reconstructions. In this ‘Bildungsroman’, episodes and colourful figures dating back to Van Moerkerken’s school years and pre-war Paris are described with a high degree of precision and atmosphere.
Emiel van Moerkerken never viewed photography as his profession. He avoided professional photography more or less deliberately, devoting his time to other activities such as writing, filmmaking, and psychology—all with equal passion. He alternated between his books, films, and photographs to express his broad interests and intellectual nature. His photographs can hardly be categorised into any one of the existing Dutch traditions, be it artistic photography or documentary photography. Van Moerkerken’s surrealistic photographs—an anomaly in Dutch pre-war photography—are best characterised as international and avant-gardist. As well in his later work, in which he captures mainly his own experiences, discoveries and observations, Van Moerkerken reveals a preference for the subjective quality of the photographic medium.
Documentation
Primary bibliography
S. Carmiggelt (voorw.), Reportages in licht en schaduw, Amsterdam (Van Oorschot) 1947.
Adriaan Morriën (tekst), Amsterdam, Amsterdam (Scheltema en Holkema/ Becht) 1957.
Jan Blokker (tekst), Meisjes van Nederland, Utrecht (Bruna & Zoon) 1959.
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E. Terduyn, Fotograferen in Moskou, in Vrij Nederland 2 november 1963.
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27 juni 1964.
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Secondary bibliography
Dolf Verspoor, Fotokunst, in De Lyceumkrant (Kennemer Lyceum) (september 1933).
Auteur onbekend, Het spreekuur van den fotodokter, in Wij. Ons leven ons werk 1938.
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P. Heyse, Fotografie-Fotokunst, in Winkler Prins Encyclopaedie, deel VIII, (ca. 1950).
L.M. Schwarz, Wat men ver haalt is (niet altijd) lekker, in Foto 7 (juni 1952) 6, p. 142-143.
Peter Lichtveld, Photocol, in Propria Cures 31 oktober 1953.
R. Nieman, Mooie foto’s in ‘Le Canard’, in Elseviers Weekblad 21 november 1953.
H. Kleinstra, ‘Le Canard’. De fotografie en de film, in Foto 8 (december 1953) 12, p. 348-350 (met foto’s).
R.H. Mason, Pictorial analysis. A brief review of the pictures on the next pages, in Amateur Photographer 108 (29 december :954) 3451, p. 1038-1039.
J.J. Hens, Wat ik zag … en wat ik hoorde… dat mij trof, in Foto 12 (juni 1957) 6, p. 224-228 (met foto’s).
R. Nieman, Contrasten in fotoverslagen, in Elseviers Weekblad 8 juni 1957.
D.B. (=Dick Boer), Meisjes van Nederland, in Focus 45 (6 februari 1960) 3, p. 75, 90.
J.P. Guépin, Van Geel als surrealist, in E. de Waard (samenstelling), Chr.J. van Geel. ‘De ene kunst leeft nooit zonder de andere, althans bij mij’, Amsterdam (Meulenhoff) 1977, p. 21-26.
Els Barents (red.), Fotografie in Nederland 1940-1975, Den Haag (Staatsuitgeverij) 1978, p. 23, 33, 92, biografie.
Kees Broos en Flip Bool (red.), Fotografie in Nederland 1920-1940, Den Haag (Staatsuitgeverij) 1979, p. 65,85,86, 120, 125, 126, 130, I31, 142, 154.
Marleen Kox, Verslag onderzoek fotoarchieven. (Samengesteld in opdracht van de Stichting Nederlands Foto-Archief), Amsterdam, juli 1981.
E. Jaguer, Les Mystères de la Chambre Noire. Le Surrealisme et la photographie, Parijs (Flammarion) 1982, p. 82-84. (Duitse editie: Surrealistische Photographie.
Zwischen Traum und Wirklichkeit, Keulen (DuMont) 1984, p. 15, 82-84, 115-116).
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Catalogus tent. Geconstrueerd voor foto’s, Amsterdam (Nederlandse Kunststichting) 1983, p. 5.
Catalogus tent. Zien en gezien worden. Fotografische zelfbespiegeling in Nederland van ca. 1840 tot heden, Nijmegen (Nijmeegs Museum ‘Commanderie van Sint-Jan’) 1983, p. 90.
José Vovelle, La diffusion du Surrealisme dans les pays néerlandophones 1920-1950, Parijs (Université de Paris I) 1984, (These de Doctorat d’état), p. 373-383.
E. Jaguer, II Surrealismo nel paese delle brume bionde, in Terzo occhio september 1984, p. 30-35.
Catalogus Fotobiennale Enschede. Amerikaanse en Nederlandse fotografie, Enschede (Stichting Fotobiennale Enschede) 1984, p.48, 62.
Joh. M. Pameijer, Emiel van Moerkerken: Fotograferen doe je om het interessante, het mooie, niet om het psychologische, in Dagblad Tubantia 18 augustus 1984, p. 11.
Remco Campert (inl.), Amsterdam 1950-1959 20 fotografen, Amsterdam (Fragment) 1985, ongepag., omslag, afb. 5, 16, 33, 48, 49.
Auteur onbekend, Emile van Moerkerken.
Gerard van der Heide, in Catalogus tent. Foto ’86, Den Haag (Staatsuitgeverij) 1986, p. 144.
EdR, Amsterdam 1950-1959, 20 fotografen, in Perspektief (jan../febr./mrt. 1986) 23, p. 48-50.
Auteur onbekend, Welkom bij Galerie f.32, in Nieuwsbrief.32 mei 1986.
Willem Kuipers, Een zoen van Annabel, in De Volkskrant 16 mei 1986, p. 19.
Hans Renders, E. van Moerkerken en het zijden draadje tussen Stalin en Breton, in Het oog in ‘t zeil 4 (april 1987) 4, p. 20-27.
Anneke van Veen, Amsterdam voordat het voorbij is. De foto-opdrachten van het Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst ten behoeve van het Gemeente-Archief, in Perspektief (juni 1987) 28/29, p. 62 (met foto’s).
Hripsimé Visser, Documentaire en monumentale foto-opdrachten in Nederland na 1945, in Perspektief (juni 1987) 28/29, p. 116.
Hans Renders, E. van Moerkerken, in Perspektief (november 1987) 30, p. 23-35 (met foto’s).
B. Hogenkamp, De Nederlandse documentaire film 1920-1940, Amsterdam (Van Gennep) 1988, p.63, 91, 94.
M. Boom, Exposition Internationale du Surrealisme, in Jong Holland (1988) 1, p. 5- 15.
J. Vovelle, Le ‘Bel été’ surréaliste d’Amsterdam 1938. Stratégies internationalistes a 1’épreuve de la fiari, in Les Cahiers du Musée National d’Art Moderne voorjaar 1988, p. 57- 74.
Memberships
BKVK, (voor de oorlog).
NBF, vanaf 1946 tot heden, sinds 1988 erelid.
Awards
1959 Award of Distinction, Creative Film Foundation, New York, voor de film ‘Cuckoo Waltz’.
1983 Gouden Kalf voor ‘Volgend jaar in Holysloot’ (beste korte film).
Exhibitions
1936 (g) Amsterdam, gebouw De Geelvinck, De Olympiade Onder Dictatuur (DOOD).
1937 (g) Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum. foto ’37.
1938 (g) Amsterdam, (Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 256), (surrealistische expositie in het huis van E. van Moerkerken).
1950 (g) Eindhoven, Stedelijk van Abbe Museum, Vakfotografie 1950.
1952 (g) Den Haag, Gemeentemuseum, Fotoschouw ’52.
1953 (e) Amsterdam, Le Canard, (boven een fototentoonstelling, met foto’s van E. van Moerkerken; in de kelder een collagetentoonstelling. Gezamenlijke titel Photocol).
1954/1955 (g) Saarbrücken, Staatlichen Schule für Kunst und Handwerk, Subjektive Fotografie 2.
1955 (g) Parijs, Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées, Premier Biennale Photo-Cinéma.
1957 (e) Amsterdam, La Cave Internationale, 24e Foto-expositie. Vakantie-kiekjes van E. van Moerkerken.
1964 (g) Milaan, Tredicesima Triënnale di Milano.
1966 (g) Utrecht, Handelsbeurs, Ekspo: Tussederusse.
1978/1979 (g) Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Fotografie in Nederland 1940-1975.
1979 (g) Den Haag, Gemeentemuseum, Foto 20-40.
1983 (g) Parijs, Galerie 1900-2000, Trajectoires 1905-1983.
1984 (g) Enschede, Fotobiennale Enschede.
1985 (g) Amsterdam, Museum Fodor.
1985 (g) Parijs, Galerie Zabriskie, La Photographie surréaliste avant 1940.
1985 (g) Amsterdam, Gemeentearchief, Amsterdam 1950-1959 20 fotografen.
1986 (g) Amsterdam, Galerie f.32, Emiel van Moerkerken & Gerard van der Heide (Foto ’86).
1987 (g) Amsterdam, De Meervaart, Naakt voor de camera.
1989 (g) Deurne, Gemeentemuseum De Wieger, De automatische verbeelding.
Films
(Selectie uit zijn belangrijkste films naar eigen scenario’s).
1934 Sonate ’34.
1936-1953 Limehouse Blues.
1955 Cuckoo Waltz.
1959 De Wad lopers.
1963 Good morning.
1964 IJsland zonder ijs.
1964 Au Révoir.
1965 Signalement van de hik.
1966 Bergtoppen in de oceaan (zomerdagen op de Faeröer).
1969 Droompaleis (Le Palais Ideal du Facteur Cheval).
1972 Improvisatie.
1973 Sonata Chipolata.
1977 Maison Picassiette.
1983 Volgend jaar in Holysloot.
Television programs
15 maart 1984 (programma gewijd aan E. van Moerkerken, in kader van serie over Nederlandse cineasten), (NOS).
Sources
Amsterdam, E. van Moerkerken, documentatie en mondelinge informatie.
Leiden, Prentenkabinet, bibliotheek en documentatiebestand.
Collections
Amsterdam, Gemeentearchief.
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum.
Den Haag, Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst.