Biography

Discussion

Ed van Wijk was not the kind of man to place much value on being in the limelight. Having started out in 1939, Van Wijk modestly evolved to become a photographer in the years after the war. His oeuvre was appreciated chiefly within the NFK. Van Wijk lived in The Hague, which was also the home base of one of his most important clients, the publishing company W. van Hoeve. The impressive series of photobooks published by this company were somewhat overshadowed by the popular ‘photobook fund’ of the Amsterdam printing company Contact. Similarly, the NFK in The Hague stood in the shadow of the GKf (Gebonden Kunsten Federatie, vakgroep fotografie, ‘United Arts Federation, Department of Photography’) in Amsterdam when it came to literature on the history of photography. This in part explains why the work of photographers such as Ed van Wijk—apart from personal modesty—has received, until recently, less attention than it deserves.

Like many photographers of his generation, Ed van Wijk was an autodidact. At the age of twelve, his grandfather gave him a box camera. Van Wijk experimented with this camera to his heart’s content, and on his sixteenth birthday, he purchased a second-hand Rolleicord with his savings. The Rolleicord was a type of camera with which he also preferred to photograph later in his career. Using this camera at his school, Van Wijk had his first experience with candid photography: photographing in the classroom while going unnoticed.

After obtaining his secondary school diplomas, Van Wijk wanted nothing more than to be a photographer. His parents, however, felt it was wiser for him to first learn a real profession. They presumably believed that studying to become a pharmacist’s assistant, when combined with his passion for photography, would lead to something in the vein of a pharmacy/photography store—a combination that was quite common at the time. Van Wijk obtained his diploma as a pharmacist’s assistant, but never put his education to practical use. Despite the unfavourable prospects for the future, Van Wijk decided to make his hobby his profession and chose once and for all to become a photographer. Van Wijk had been living in The Hague since 1932. Accordingly, a significant share of his archive consists of shots taken in The Hague. Van Wijk’s negatives archive is relatively limited in size (ca. 10,000 negatives). This is due to the fact that he required only one or two shots to capture the image he desired—in contrast to the practice of countless other photographers. During the war, Van Wijk had learned to be frugal with his materials. Furthermore, the use of a Rolleicord camera allowed one to work more effectively, as one could see on the ground glass screen whether the composition and the lighting were in order.

In addition to the Rolleicord, Van Wijk was also quick to purchase a Leica 35 mm camera. He took this camera with him on his trip to Iceland (via Norway) in 1939, which he was able to afford thanks to a well-paying wedding reportage made for the Zumpolle family. The images from this trip were lost due to an error made during the developing of the colour slide film rolls.

Although Van Wijk later took practically all of his shots in black and white alone, he initially worked intensively with colour photography. Because of the colour films that Kodak and Agfa had introduced onto the market in 1935 and ’36, photographers and their clients were devoting significant attention to the possibilities and applications of the colour process during these years, which was still quite new.

Van Wijk’s early experiences with colour photography were what led to his first official commission. He was bestowed the honour of photographically documenting the most significant details of the Crabeth Brothers’ famous sixteenth-century stained glass windows of the Saint John’s Church in Gouda, both in colour and black-and-white. With the threat of war ever impending, these ‘Gouda windows’ had been removed from the church and placed under the protection of farmers.

Van Wijk was never directly involved in the goings-on of the war. His asthmatic condition had exempted from military conscription. Although not really a reportage photographer—his initial practice consisted chiefly of taking portraits and wedding photos—the consequences of the German occupation motivated him to start photographing during the initial days of the war. Just days after the devastating bombardment of Rotterdam, he biked to the city and photographed the crashed German planes that he passed along the way. It was not until more than four years later that this series of photos was to have a sequel. This occurred after the liberation of Antwerp, Belgium, when it appeared that the end of war was also in sight for the Netherlands. Photography had become virtually impossible, considering all the restrictive measures taken by the German occupier and the shortage of photo material. But Ed van Wijk saw his chance—as one of the very few—to illegally photograph historic events such as ‘Dolle Dinsdag’ (‘Mad Tuesday’), the evacuation of the ‘Marlot’ neighbourhood in The Hague (directly adjacent to Wassenaar), the bicycle raids of October 1944, and the raids in association with the ‘Arbeitseinsatz’ (forced labour deployment) on 21 November 1944. In early March 1945, Van Wijk ventured out with his Leica to photograph the disastrous consequences of the bombardment of the Bezuidenhout neighbourhood in The Hague. In the final days of April, he was also witness to the food droppings at Duindigt. Hereafter, he documented the liberation of The Hague in countless images.

The extensive wedding album that Helga van Wijk-Weyman kept over a period of four years, starting with her first meeting with Ed van Wijk in late September 1944, serves as a source of information regarding the events of the war, and specifically, her husband’s photos of those events. As his wife’s description of 27 April 1945 in this album relates, during this period Van Wijk printed his photos with the help of batteries, which provided weak and insubstantial light. Several of Van Wijk’s photos—with hindsight erroneously—were included in a 1988 publication on the war photos of H.G.L. Schimmelpenningh.

A number of the war photos attributed to Schimmelpenningh proved to be in fact taken by his friend Ed van Wijk, e.g. a shot depicting the removal of wooden blocks between the tram rails on the Elandstraat, as well as photos taken of the food droppings (on pages 70 and 72 of this publication). According to Van Wijk’s oral account, Schimmelpenningh had been attacked on Radio Oranje (‘Radio Orange’) for work he had done on behalf of the German Rijkscommissariaat (‘Imperial Commission’): since then he hardly dared to venture out on the street to take photographs. Van Wijk took on the responsibility of continuing to illegally document the war situation in The Hague, with his Leica 35 mm camera concealed in a handkerchief. Prints of his shots had ended up in Schimmelpenningh’s archive, leading to this erroneous attribution.

Certainly compared with Huizinga’s 450 shots of the German occupation and the liberation in The Hague, Van Wijk’s illegal photographic oeuvre from the years of the is much more limited in number and subject. What makes Van Wijk’s shots different—relative to the extant photographic material of The Hague known at the current time—is his sharp eye for detail, drama, and lighting. Van Wijk had gained experience with drama and lighting when doing work for the Residentie Toneel (‘Residency Theatre’). Along with portraits and wedding reportages, he earned his livelihood during the war primarily by photographing this group’s performances. He received these commissions via Simon Carmiggelt, a friend of Van Wijk’s brother, Jan, in the Dutch resistance.

After the liberation, Helga van Wijk kept her wedding album up to date for more than three additional years, with longer breaks in between. The album as well provides important information with respect to Van Wijk’s photographic practices in the first years after the war. He rebuilt the bedroom as a provisional studio, so that the portrait and children’s photos could be taken at his home. Photographing children was a major source of income for Van Wijk in the early years after the war, as he related in article on the topic of children’s photography published in the January 1949 issue of Bedrijfsfotografie (‘Corporate Photography’). In retrospect, these photos today appear somewhat conservative, but Van Wijk’s feeling for the play of light is remarkable. It would also figure as an important element in his work later on in his career. From the brief article that accompanies the piece, one can gain a number of insights into his working method and preferences: ‘I often venture out with my Rolleiflex (this being the camera I prefer, because you can always follow the image from the ground glass screen) to photograph children in their own homes. This has the advantage that the child and—every bit as important—also the mother, truly feel at home there. (…) I like to use a combination of daylight and artificial light. Daylight can function as the main lighting, back lighting or side lighting. In any event, the lighting has to be harmonious, above all not restless.’

From 1950 on, Van Wijk’s photos were featured in two women’s magazines on a regular basis: Eva. Het rijk der vrouw and Wij Vrouwen. These are illustrations for articles by Els Hofker, a journalist in The Hague, concerning the place of women in society. The Eva of 22 March 1952 includes an article about ‘Vrouwen, van wie men nooit iets hoort. Beroep: geen’ (‘Women one never hears about. Profession: None’). The article focuses on Helga van Wijk and her family living at Willemstraat 34 in Amsterdam, by this time with three children. The journalist followed the family for a day and reported the following: ‘Her husband is a photographer, and even though he wins prize after prize at exhibitions, he’s not a businessman. Helga assists him with this. She records the appointments; she assists with the photo finishing; she does the correspondence, sends off photos and orders materials.’

In the 1950s, the custom of author citation—which the Germans had made a requirement during the occupation—fell once again into disuse. This hampers the work of photography historians: as a consequence, finding a photographer’s published photos becomes virtually an impossible task. The same applies to Van Wijk. Only the published works for which he submitted and saved specimen copies are known to us. His name is mentioned only on a few occasions in connection with a published photo, such as on the cover of the magazine Eva of 21 February 1953: ‘Ure der beproeving [‘Hour of Tribulation’] (Foto E. van Wijk, N.F.K.)’. The photo concerns the flooding disaster in the province of Zeeland in February 1953. It shows a woman with two children beneath a blanket. Colourised and mounted on a photo of flooded Zeeland, this very same image is also featured on the cover of the Paris Match for the third week of February. Photos such as this, which radiate warmth and human sympathy, belong to a movement in photography that had already emerged during the war, but which especially drew tremendous interest in the years thereafter. This movement became known as ‘human interest’ photography, which served as the basis for Edward Steichen when putting together his famous 1955 exhibition, The Family of Man.

During and after the war, Van Wijk worked as a staff photographer for both the Residentie Tooneel and the Haagse Comedie (‘Hague Comedy’). Yet his reputation was primarily built based on the photobooks he made over the years for Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve, a publishing company in The Hague. The first volume was Nederland. Wonder uit water (‘The Netherlands. Miracle Out of Water’) from 1954, followed by the book ‘s-Gravenhage (‘The Hague’) less than one year later. Both books affirmed that Van Wijk had developed ample professional skills as an autodidact and acquired a personal vision that was completely his own.

At the time Van Wijk photographed the flooding disaster in Zeeland, W. van Hoeve had already commissioned him to make a photobook on the Netherlands. The negotiations for this project had previously been arranged with A. Menalda, a photographer in The Hague. For financial reasons, however, the deal never came to a contractual agreement and the project was reassigned to Van Wijk.

On 25 March 1954, Nederland. Wonder uit water was presented at Van Wijk’s first solo exhibition in the hall above the Van Stockum bookstore on the Buitenhof in The Hague. The book’s publication led to approximately fifty reviews, some brief and some extensive, in which the book was widely lauded. Consequently, Ed van Wijk became a well-known photographer virtually overnight. In the magazine Focus, E.A. Loeb proclaimed: ‘As this is now indeed stylistically pure photographic work, that can serve as an example for every one of us regarding what can be accomplished by solely photographic means. (…) Part of what is most beautiful about this entire oeuvre is that nowhere is there a desired effect being sought after, nowhere is there a striving for originality at any price, and still they are normal ‘photographs’, seemingly acquired without exceptional effort.’ Van Wijk is praised here mainly for his skilled craftsmanship, not for his innovative vision. Similar comments in this magazine were made by Dick Boer: ‘Van Wijk is a professional, his technique is therefore complete. Sharp from the front to the back where it’s necessary, sharp only on the main subject, where one wants it in order to isolate it from the background.’ An issue of Foto followed in June, featuring a book review written by L. van Beurden, who had more of an eye for the feeling that these photos conveyed: ‘This book is vivaciously exciting. Not only because of its dynamic layout. Not only because of the people in it. Yet—paradox—because Van Wijk himself is so serene. Manages to capture the Netherlands’ striving and working so objectively. With warmth. Because is this is the hidden diction that speaks from the photos of the Netherlands. The warmth with which Van Wijk managed to see and portray.’

To this Van Beurden added: ‘Van Wijk won’t be perturbed when we for once begin by commending the publisher W. van Hoeve of The Hague. After all, what other publisher besides Contact has the élan, the financial daring, for such a monumental photo publication. And for this task chooses a talent who is not nationally renowned.’

The reference made to the Amsterdam publishing company Contact is relevant. With the book Nederland. Wonder uit water, which had a bold format approaching that of Contact’s post-war series De schoonheid van ons land (‘The Beauty of our Country’), W. van Hoeve seems to have incited competition with Contact’s fund intentionally. Van Hoeve’s series of books on Dutch cities that followed appear to confirm this.

For Nederland. Wonder uit water, Van Wijk traveled across the Netherlands in less than two years in order to present a picture that was representative of the Netherlands. In addition to the serene manner in which he treated people, shots that are backlit and images verging on the abstract—e.g. the Rotterdam ‘Groothandelsgebouw’, Marram grass, shells, or fishing nets—play a noticeable role. One can clearly sense the accomplishments of New Photography from the 1930s as well as the spirit of Subjective Photography, propagated by Otto Steinert and coming from Germany. The Dutch representatives of these movements were united chiefly in the NFK.

Ed van Wijk was not the kind of man to be swayed by all of the praise expressed in response to his first book. More important for him—as Van Wijk confided to Max Koot at the opening of his own exhibition, according to the May 1954 issue of Fotografie—was that new commissions would be coming for other books to be published by Van Hoeve. In the end, eight books were published in total, with the last one appearing in 1963. None, however, were as successful as the book Nederland. Wonder uit water.

In mid-December 1955, W. van Hoeve published Van Wijk’s next photobook, entitled ‘s-Gravenhage (‘The Hague’), for which Meinard Woldringh also furnished twelve colour photos. The most extensive review was written by Jac van der Ster in De Groene Amsterdammer of 25 February 1956: ‘In books about the beauty of cities, Amsterdam holds a inordinately large place; that’s why it’s promising when, for once, another city asserts itself. And now I suddenly also realise it’s possible to discover through photos that which cannot be seen. I’ve been in The Hague often, but as a Rotterdamer, I had something against this city—completely unfounded by the way, and now I must say, after looking at this book, that I’ve been an idiot, and that The Hague is actually a very pretty city, with an atmosphere indeed all its own.’ Van der Ster’s personal revelations were preceded by a number of questions: ‘What exactly is the explanation for why picture books have been so popular in recent years? Is it all a consequence of reading exhaustion, or to express it less amicably, reading laziness? When seen from this angle, does the success of the Contact Photo Pocketbooks, yes, of the Skira or Phaidon books, belong to the same category as that of the picture novels and television? Is there an evolution of humanity taking place, by which visual receptiveness is taking over other kinds?’

The photobook is by no mean exclusively a post-war phenomenon. The number of photobooks that were being published in the aftermath of the war, however, did in fact soar dramatically, as Van der Ster rightfully observed. The cause of this, when viewed in retrospect, was in all probability the tremendous increase in people’s mobility and the tourism that came with it.

Between 1958 and 1961, W. van Hoeve published three more photobooks with Ed van Wijk, specifically on the cities Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Leiden. In the case of Rotterdam, Van Wijk would have stood in direct competition with Cas Oorthuys, whose magnificent book Rotterdam. Dynamische stad (‘Rotterdam, Dynamic City’) was brought out by Uitgeverij Contact at approximately the same time. When compared to Oorthuys’ big, beautiful book—designed by Dick Elffers—Van Wijk’s smaller publication, in all honesty, falls short. When asked about this, Van Wijk admitted that photographing Rotterdam was for him somewhat of a daunting task. The absence of idyllic, historical places clearly had an affect in carrying out this particular commission. Where he was concerned, Amsterdam had more to offer in this respect.

In 1963, the series of books that Van Wijk did for W. van Hoeve came to a close with a photo pocketbook edition on Madurodam and a photobook on the Dutch province of Friesland. After Nederland. Wonder uit water, the book on Friesland was most successful in terms of the variety of photos, covering a wide range of topics, and Van Wijk’s usual play of light and shadow. When looking back at the negatives of these shots, we find a number of surprises. For instance, the woman wearing traditional Dutch attire on page 74 of the book was originally smoking a cigarette, which was eliminated without a trace by a retoucher. One can wonder if Van Wijk actually gave his approval for this modification. Any time a photobook is published, however, it is not only the photographer who makes the decisions, but also the publisher, the designer, the printer, and sometimes even the author—all who bring their own ideas to a project. W. van Hoeve most certainly gave Van Wijk the creative space he needed. But it remains to be seen whether he actually had the final say when it came to the commercial aspects of the book’s publication.

It was undoubtedly based on the notoriety of his photobooks that Van Wijk was asked to become a photography instructor at the Vrije Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten (‘Free Academy of Fine Arts’) in The Hague in 1957. He shared this responsibility with a fellow member of the NFK, Victor Meeussen, who also lived in The Hague. In 1959, Van Wijk also became an instructor at the School voor Fotografie en Fototechniek (‘School of Photography and Photographic Technique’) in The Hague, and in 1964, a photography instructor at the Akademie voor Beeldende Kunsten (‘Academy of Visual Arts’) in Arnhem. Consequently, there was hardly any time for him to continue making photobooks. During the years he was teaching, he accepted virtually no more commissions. For a number of years, he produced a calendar for the Haagsche Courant. After a book on Delft—of which two versions were brought out by Elmar, a publishing company in Delft, with the most extensive version featuring 124 photos appearing in 1964—Van Wijk devoted his full time and effort to teaching, with the exception of several industrial commissions.

Up until his retirement in 1982, Van Wijk made his mark on countless generations of young photographers. Frederick Linck and Marcel Minnée were among his students, just to name two photographers in The Hague. The history of photography education in the Netherlands after World War II still has to be written, but there is no doubt that Ed van Wijk played an important role. Loved by his students, he was an instructor who taught them the tricks of the trade in a gentle way. His classes consisted of studio work, as well as related issues such as lighting, exposure, and composition. He also allowed his students to do their assignments, photo finishing, etc., on an independent basis.

In addition to his daily work as a teacher, Van Wijk found time to organise a bulky written correspondence course in photography for the Leidse Onderwijsinstellingen (‘Leiden Educational Instutitions’) in three volumes, together with Piet van der Ham. Although the text for this course was likely written for the most part by Van der Ham, Van Wijk clearly had an influence on its content. In the chapter on ‘experimental photography’, for instance, the emphasis is placed on Subjective Photography, Otto Steinert’s movement from the 1950s. As mentioned above, in the Netherlands this form of creative photography—with a strong emphasis on form—found its most avid followers among members of the NFK. In 1954-’55, Van Wijk was represented at the second exhibition that Steinert devoted to this movement in photography, held in Saarbrücken, Germany. Various examples of Van Wijk’s experiments were used to illustrate this chapter in the LOI course on ‘De experimentele fotografie’ (‘Experimental Photography’), varying from a photogram, blur accomplished by setting or movement, light reflection in water, and double exposure. Van Wijk’s work is also amply represented in the chapters on landscape, children’s, and architectural photography. The last chapter on ‘Specialisten en speciale takken van fotografie’ (‘Specialists and Special Branches of Photography’) includes a biographical sketch of Van Wijk’s life, written by Piet van der Ham, placed under the heading ‘sociaal-meditatieve stijl’ (‘social-meditative style’). By doing so, Van der Ham undoubtedly wished to address how Van Wijk visualised his warm interest in his fellow man via images that were somewhat distant and dream-like.

Ed van Wijk’s work is not to be classified into any one category. Otto Steinert’s Subjective Photography shaped his oeuvre as a photographer to a degree. Van Wijk’s photography also bears traits of the ‘human interest’ photography, which arose primarily in the 1940s and ’50s and presented itself so perceptibly at the exhibition The Family of Man.

Generally speaking, Van Wijk followed his own path. As a photographer, he knew what he stood for and he knew what he wanted. Professionalism and an efficient working method were first and foremost in this regard. In 1949, Van Wijk wrote: ‘I must confess to you that I love few words more than many.’ The same can be said of his photos: saying a great deal with few images—this was Van Wijk’s unspoken motto. Working from this perspective, Ed van Wijk—a Hague photographer who photographed The Hague—has earned a place of merit in the history of Dutch photography.

Documentation