Biography

Discussion

Marius Meijboom was a photographer who disliked being in the spotlight. He felt it was more important that his work was familiar to the public. Consequently, little is known about the photographer himself and the history of his studio. For years, he photographed late into the night. He had no time for contact with other photographers and professional associations. Photography was his passion, or as he formulated it himself: ‘A wonderful profession. It keeps you awake, gives you stomach aches, but you still think it’s wonderful.’

The negatives archive for the years 1955 to 1975 was sent off to a waste processing company in the 1970s. For the period 1934 to 1955, much of the archive has been preserved. The negatives had been stored for years in the attic of the studio on the Keizersgracht, where they were seriously damaged by moisture, dirt, shifting temperatures and vermin. As there are scarcely any documents that have survived, there is very little insight into the total scope of the studio’s completed commissions. Unfortunately, there are practically no proof prints to be found in the archive. The ‘vintage prints’ have all been dispersed.

Meijboom developed his passion for photography after having decided to study pharmacy. The combination of photography and a profession with a physics or chemistry background was not unusual. Meijboom’s father, besides being a druggist and a seller of pharmaceuticals, was also an impassioned amateur photographer. In the beginning, Meijboom was hardly susceptible to his father’s attempts to inspire his son’s interest in photography.

In Meppel, there was an amateur photographer’s association under the direction of A.J. van Gelder (1889-1961), the editor of Cosmorama. Maandblad voor Internationale Fotokunst (‘Cosmorama. Monthly for International Photo Art’). It is probable that both the father and son maintained contact with this association. In 1935, Meijboom published one of his first photographs in this magazine. He also wrote a technical elucidation under the heading ‘Correctie’ (‘Correction’) in the same issue.

While studying pharmacy at the University of Amsterdam, Meijboom became interested in photography. He discovered the portraits of Godfried de Groot, which were exhibited in showcases in Amsterdam. Coincidentally, De Groot came across a small portrait produced by Meijboom and was subsequently moved by the young photographer’s talent. De Groot loaned him some photographic equipment, enabling Meijboom to take photos, including portraits for the apothecary shop’s customers. De Groot’s photos would continue to inspire Meijboom.

Besides Godfried de Groot, the pictorialist Johan Huijsen also had an influence on Meijboom’s work. Both were members of the AAFV (Amsterdamse Amateur Fotografen Vereniging, ‘Amsterdam Amateur Photographers Association’). In 1957, Huijsen stated that Meijboom was one of his students. Meijboom learned from Huijsen: ‘(…) op levende objecten met sfeer te concentreren’ (‘to concentrate on living objects with atmosphere’). Huijsen may likewise have also taught Meijboom several fine printing (‘edeldruk’) techniques. Huijsen himself enjoyed experimenting with fine printing processes. Around 1935, he made several carbon prints with Meijboom’s negatives.

In 1934, Meijboom decided to leave the pharmacy business and follow photography lessons at the Reimann Schule (‘Reimann School’) in Berlin. This school was established in 1902 by Albert Reimann (1874-1976). In 1931, Werner Graeff set up a department of photography at the school, where the achievements of Bauhaus teaching could be put into practice. In 1934, a start was made with a one-year photography education. By the time Meijboom visited the school, Graeff was already gone. Yet the principles of New Photography were still very much a part of the training.

In the academic year 1934-’35, Meijboom received seven months of teaching at the Reimann Schule. He had his own studio to work in and submitted his photos for evaluation at the school. Reimann Schule was set up according to a workshop system, so that the pupils obtained the necessary practical experience. Meijboom liked this method of teaching. During the period that he was involved in teaching at the School voor Fotografie en Fotonica (‘School of Photography and Photonics’) and the KABK (Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten, ‘Royal Academy of Art’), both in The Hague, he was an outspoken proponent for such a teaching method oriented towards practical experience. Meijboom received instruction from Otto Croy and Walter Kross, among others. Croy, who was especially important for Meijboom, had been at the school since 1934, teaching ‘Bildmassige Photographie’ (‘Image-Related Photography’) and ‘Photo-Graphik’ (‘Photo Graphics’). In his view, photography was ‘Zweckkunst’ not to be enhanced by pictorial principles.

Meijboom opened his first studio in 1936 at Vossiusstraat 4 in Amsterdam. The portrait studio’s close proximity to the Stadsschouwburg (‘Civic Theatre’) ensured a clientele from the theatre world. Both the studio on the Vossiusstraat as well as the new studio at Keizersgracht 568 (starting in 1938) were in an excellent location. The interior was refined. In the monumental building on the Keizersgracht, clients could become acquainted with the studio’s work in a space that was decorated with stucco and a crystal chandelier. In 1938, Meijboom’s studio was described as a ‘department store’ for photography in the magazine, Revue der Reclame (‘Advertising Review’). In the 1960s, Meijboom also made use of studios in Bovenkerk and Sloterdijk.

Publicity and customer acquisition were extremely important for the studio’s growth. Meijboom’s notoriety spread with the publication of his portraits in the book, Persoonlijkheden in het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden […](‘Personalities in the Kingdom of the Netherlands […]’), and the commissions from the Royal Family. Meijboom’s photos were exhibited in the showcases at Amsterdam Central Station and in the storefront window and waiting room of the photo studio. He gave out presentation folders with his photographic work, while representatives kept up contacts with companies. Starting in 1938, Meijboom was one of the few photographers that tried to reach new clients by placing eye-catching advertisements in the Revue der Reclame (‘Advertising Review’).

In 1938, there were twenty-five employees, as opposed to a staff of only three people just two years before. Assistants were recruited among up-and-coming photographers who desired to acquire a technical knowledge of photography at the studio or who wished to gain practical experience in line with their study. One of these pupils was Meinard Woldringh, who worked in the studio in 1936-’37. Jan Schiet also worked as a volunteer for a while together with Meijboom. People who worked as lab technicians in the studio included Andrea Domburg, Hanny Graper, Wies Meertens and Johanna Strikker. The photographers who worked together with Meijboom over the years were Gerhard Badrian, Henk van der Heijden, Dirk Jonker, Margreet van Konijnenburg, Daan van Leeuwen, Frits Lemaire, the photographer and retoucher, J.J. Meun, Jaap d’Oliveira, Charles Papavoine, Ruud Posthuma, Carel Verduin and Willem Wennink.

During his study in Berlin, Meijboom had already been scolded for insulting Hitler. Back in the Netherlands, the Germans were keeping an eye on him as well. Because Meijboom had several Jewish employees working for him and many Jewish businessmen belonged to his clientele, his studio was seen by the German occupiers as being ‘Judenfreundlich’ (‘Jew-friendly’). Gerhard Badrian was one of the Jewish employees. He had fled Germany and, in Amsterdam, had become involved in Gerrit Jan van der Veen’s PBC (Persoonsbewijzen Centrale, ‘Persons’ Identity Papers Centre’) and the armed resistance. In Meijboom’s studio, passport photos were taken to produce false identity papers. It was this that induced the Germans to arrest Meijboom and his wife at the time, Margreet van Konijnenburg, in 1942.

Meijboom and Margreet van Konijnenburg were taken to the prison in Scheveningen. Margreet van Konijnenburg was released in August. Meijboom was transferred to the camp at Amersfoort, where he was sentenced to a year in prison with a deduction for time on remand. Around January 1943, he was held at Vught, where he worked in the ‘Krankenbau’ (‘infirmary construction’). During Meijboom’s absence, the studio had been sealed off. A man named Jautze was later appointed as a ‘Verwalter’ (administrator). Jautze found the studio’s revenues to be insufficient, however, and he left. Margreet van Konijnenburg was also a photographer. In the 1940s, she took photo shots for the company, Waldorp Radio, and others. Following Jautze’s departure, she took over the running of the studio for a while. Thanks to the intermediation of Mr. Seifert—the acting director of Waldorp Radio—Meijboom was released at the end of 1943. Gerhard Badrian was betrayed in 1944 and executed by the Sicherheitsdienst (the German ‘Security Service’).

The photos that Meijboom took during the last months of the war depict the underfed population of Amsterdam during the Hunger Winter. Frits Lemaire said that, when taking a photo of an extremely emaciated woman, Meijboom had asked her to ‘briefly suck in her cheeks’ in order to heighten the effect. The shots were taken for the Nederland Archief (‘Netherlands Archive’) and the Dutch government in London. Others that were involved in making reportages for this archive were Emmy Andriesse, Carel Blazer, Charles Breijer, Cas Oorthuys, Kryn Taconis and Ad Windig. The shots were printed in Meijboom’s studio in Amsterdam. The electricity to do this was tapped from a neighbouring building on the Keizersgracht that housed Germans. Following the war, the photos were exhibited in Meijboom’s studio. The illegal shots later became known by the title of the exposition: De Ondergedoken Camera (‘The Illegal Camera’). The photos travelled throughout the Netherlands and were also seen abroad. Meijboom promoted himself as an art photographer. In the 1930s, he made autonomous work, including still lifes, landscapes and nudes, which he displayed in the waiting rooms of his studio. Most of the photos, however, were commissioned works. Meijboom’s clients belonged to the higher circles of Amsterdam’s populace. By establishing his studio in a well-to-do neighbourhood, he managed to attract a select public. As a society photographer in a sense, Meijboom appeared at the parties of the wealthy and receptions of foreign celebrities. After 1945, Meijboom took over the clients of Godfried de Groot, who had been brought into discredit.

For various reasons—for instance, the growth of amateur photography—the demand for portraits declined. Advertising became a new working area, and together with fashion photography, became the studio’s specialty starting in the 1950s. Around 1950, eighty per cent of the commissions stemmed from fashion and advertising photography. Meijboom saw portrait photography as excellent preparation for advertising shots, which featured people with ever-increasing frequency.

As early as 1938, many of Meijboom’s clients were advertising firms. The first advertising commissions came from Frits van Alphen, who was charmed by a shot of small white cups that Meijboom had placed in the front window of his studio. It was an extremely simple photo that he had taken during his schooling at the Reimann Schule. In the post-war years, the studio received commissions from illustrated magazines, important advertising firms, companies and industry. One of his clients was De Bijenkorf department store. Meijboom photographed the storefront display windows and made corporate reportages for this department store in the 1930s and ’40s. His fashion shots were blown up in a large format and placed both inside the store as well as in the storefront windows. De Bijenkorf organised exhibitions on a regular basis, with Meijboom’s studio called in to assist. This working association with De Bijenkorf continued on until the studio’s final years. In the 1930s. the men’s clothing store Meuwsen had Meijboom illustrate its fashion bulletin ‘Topics’ with his photos. The magazine International Textiles was one of the studio’s clients. The shots for this magazine were made in collaboration with the design duo, Herbert en Vera Meyer-Ricard. The women’s magazine Elegance, established in 1946, regularly featured fashion reportages. In the 1950s, the advertising agency Prad had Meijboom take the fashion shots for the fashion house Sträter. These photos received a distinction from the Genootschap voor Reclame (‘Society for Advertising’) on several occasions. Meijboom also made children’s fashion his specialty. One of his clients in this area was the Dutch mail-order company Wehkamp.

In the early years, studio shots were taken with a Mentor Studio-Reflex camera. Around 1939 and during the 1940s, Meijboom also photographed with a Rolleiflex, which he used for reportages. In addition, he acquired a 10×12.5 Graphic View camera to make colour slides of the Royal Family. In the 1960s, he photographed with a Hasselblad camera, among others.

In the 1930s, Meijboom’s studio was commended for its innovative technical equipment in the magazine Bedrijfsfotografie (‘Corporate Photography’). The studio made us of ‘Philora light’: a form of artificial light that was used by Franz Ziegler in The Hague and also propagated by Johan Huijsen. The Philora lamps promoted the clarity with which colours could be converted into grey tints, minimising retouches and preventing inaccurate colour conversions.

Meijboom’s studio was one of the first to possess a transparent screen that could be used as a background. Images could be projected onto the screen, facilitating experiments with shadows. Shadow was an important compositional element in Meijboom’s early fashion and advertising photography, as well as shots featuring dancers. In several portraits, experiments with silhouettes were also done. During his entire career, Meijboom continued to exploit the potential of various lighting techniques. He often ‘painted’ with light while shooting: in other words, he moved a lamp over a subject during the exposure time. With the introduction of the flash bulbs, however, this occurred less frequently.

In the early years, Meijboom made his prints on bromide paper. On occasion, he used special kinds of photo paper. In the 1940s, he regularly applied burn to the edges of his photos in order to achieve a ‘spotlight’ effect. Applying retouches and montages, as well as other techniques, he altered the original image. Retouches were usually made on the negative, and in some cases, carried out further on the print. In the 1930s, the photomontage was one of the studio’s specialties. For the Bijenkorf’s thematic campaigns in 1938 and 1939, for instance, photos of fashionably dressed models were mounted on a photo of a city or on an enlargement of a passenger ship. The confrontation of the subjects and the unrealistic proportions of the models in relation to the background ensured that the photos were eye-catching.

A general characteristic of a studio shot is the use of attributes and pieces of decor. Meijboom’s portrait photography was austere. Attributes were used incidentally, such as a musical instrument, a rolled-up piece of paper held in the hand, or a cigarette. The person was sometimes seated in a contemporary design chair; more often than not they were seated on or leaning against a simple cube. The backgrounds were usually neutral. In the earliest fashion shots, geometric fencing, almost surrealistic cone-shaped forms, ropes and Rococo decorations were used as decor. In the 1930s and ’40s, products were photographed on an underground of glass, check patterns in black and white, diagonally placed corrugated cardboard, and raffia. In the 1950s, the white background became a dominant characteristic of the studio shot. Particularly in the works commissioned by Prad, objects and figures were made subordinate to the planar composition, so that they appeared to be abstract forms.

The key characteristic that typified Meijboom’s photography was that it almost always took place in the studio. An artificial environment allowed him to perfect composition and lighting. His photos can be distinguished by the concentration on the essence of the subject and a harmonious composition, giving the shots a serene, but also somewhat static quality. Initially, Meijboom referred to himself as an ‘art photographer’. In doing so, he was following a long tradition of photographers, who with their own work sought to obtain the same status as the painting tradition. Like these photographers, Meijboom too signed his early photos with a monogram. The titles of Meijboom’s exhibited works often referred to this pictorial photography, such as Ouderdom (‘Old Age’), Sfeer (‘Atmosphere’, 1935) en Rust (‘Quiet’, 1936). His art photographic orientation was also apparent from his membership in the more traditional photographic organisations such as the AAFV (Amsterdamse Amateur Fotografen Vereniging, ‘Amsterdam Amateur Photographers Association’), the NFPV (Nederlandse Fotografen Patroonsvereeniging, ‘Netherlands Photographers’ Guild), and the NFK (Nederlandse Fotografen Kunstkring, ‘Netherlands Photographers Art Society’). The influence of the pictorial portrait tradition manifests itself particularly in the way lighting was used on people. The light and dark contrasts in Meijboom’s portraits bear similarities to Godfried de Groot’s working approach. Meijboom never left out retouching, but idealised his portraits to a lesser degree than De Groot.

Meijboom distinguished himself from the older generation of photographers, such as Huijsen and De Groot, through his professional training. At the Reimann Schule, he learned about portraying the essence of the subject to be photographed as objectively as possible. His instructors, Otto Croy and Walter Kross, provided him with a solid technical base that allowed him to follow new principles of design. The popularised achievements of New Photography found their application in commissions coming from the business, fashion and advertising worlds. Although the design was not always innovative, it was contemporary and adapted to the function that the photo, as a conveyor of information, had come to fulfil in printed matter.

During the 1930s and ’40s, Studio Meijboom was a progressive ‘storehouse’ of photography. In the 1950s, a younger generation of photographers emerged, driving traditional studio photography to the background with its new ideas. Meijboom was criticised for his retouching and, as a studio photographer, became more and more associated with the old school. In 1961, Paul Mertz therefore wrote not only ‘Marius Meijboom was an uncrowned king’, but adding: ‘In his studio that had no daylight on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, he stuck his head under the black cloth as ever full of conviction.’

Documentation