Biography

Discussion

Wiel van der Randen was said to be a veritable Burgundian bon vivant with a positive outlook on life. In his paintings and drawings, however, an entirely different atmosphere predominates: his images are dark and sombre in tone, and more often than not, religious in nature.

In principle, Van der Randen was a press photographer for various newspapers, and later, for Dutch illustrated magazines such as the Katholieke Illustratie (‘Catholic Illustration’) and Panorama, both published by the printing company ‘NV Drukkerij De Spaarnestad’ in Haarlem (called ‘Uitgeverij De Spaarnestad BV’ starting in 1973, and from 1986 ‘Stichting Nederlands Foto- en Grafisch Centrum [NFGC]/Spaarnestad Fotoarchief’ [‘Netherlands Photo and Graphics Centre Foundation/Spaarnestad Photo Archive’]). Van der Randen was an important photographer at this company, hired specifically as a representive of the predominantly Catholic southern Netherlands to cover topics such as pilgrimages, processions, Catholic folklore, and monasteries. Yet he was also sent out on assignment to cover a much wider range of subjects. In 1934, for instance, he photographed the ‘Jordaanoproer’ (‘Jordaan Uprising’), a protest of unemployed people living in this neighbourhood of Amsterdam—demonstrating against an announced reduction in public welfare—which eventually got out of hand and was met with a harsh police response. In his role as photographer, Van der Randen attended the funerals of Prince Hendrik and Queen Emma. He also portrayed prominent figures such as Arturo Toscanini and Albert van Dalsum and photographed the infamous shooting incident on the Dam Square in Amsterdam on 7 May 1945. In addition, he produced extensive photo reportages on a variety of topics such as the production process of parchment paper, the Dutch egg industry, and the developing aviation industry in the Netherlands.

Van der Randen’s photographic reporting distinguished itself from what others were doing through his original vision and his innovative ideas concerning photography, which corresponded with the tenets of New Photography in the 1930s.

According to a statement filed with the ‘Verbond van Nederlandse journalisten’ (‘Federation of Dutch Journalists’) in 1941 (preserved at the NIOD = Nederlandse Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie, ‘Netherlands Institute for War Documentation’), Van der Randen began working as a volunteer in Roermond for a photographer named Koch immediately upon completing his education at the Gymnasium (a prep or grammar school). This cannot possibly be the portrait photographer Mathieu Koch (1900-1976), who at this time was still far too young to have run his own company, unless Van der Randen was mistaken in his description of when this took place.

Around his eighteenth year, Van der Randen was employed as a chemigrapher, in the Netherlands also referred to as a ‘clichémaker’ (‘printing plate maker’). This chemical process entailed making negatives via relief printing, involving the etching of metal plates. It seems apparent that by having worked with this process, Van der Randen understood the importance of a perfect negative, and accordingly, was less interested in the processing of a shot or print in the darkroom. In 1926, he obtained the experience necessary to do photojournalistic work while working as a photographer for the newspaper De Venlosche Courant. Van der Randen also worked both as a draughtsman and a graphic artist for this same newspaper.

In his free time, Van der Randen painted and did graphic work. His favourite themes were landscapes depicting apocalyptic scenes and religious subjects. On occasion, he drew or painted a (self-) portrait. It is striking that Van der Randen’s photography focused on subjects that were by nature progressive, while as a painter and graphic artist, he expressed himself in highly conservative terms.

During his membership in the art society ‘De Blauwe Bloem’ (‘The Blue Flower’), Van der Randen regularly designed the posters for various events. In addition, he also declared himself to be an enthusiastic amateur stage actor. Starting in 1944, Van der Randen began studying at the RABK (Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, ‘National Academy of Fine Arts’) in Amsterdam: to fill his time during the German occupation, but likewise to further his skills in painting and drawing.

Van der Randen substantiated his ability to visualise with a knowledge of technical matters. His talented and trained vision, together with his highly developed social and communicative skills, were the ingredients for his photojournalistic work, which was highly expressive in both technique and content.

In 1934, Van der Randen began working for the printing company ‘NV Drukkerij De Spaarnestad’. He was hired by E. Lautenslager, the chief editor of the Dutch magazine Katholieke Illustratie (‘Catholic Illustration’). Lautenslager knew Van der Randen from the newspaper business in the south of the country. For De Spaarnestad, Van der Randen—with his experience at the Venlosche Courant—was a good representative of the southern Netherlands, which was predominately Catholic.

During the 1930s, De Spaarnestad had connections with several photo agencies that were furnishing each other with photos intended for publication in newspapers and magazines. Vereenigde Fotobureaux (‘United Photo Bureaus’), Hollandia (Alkmaar), Polygoon (Amsterdam), and the Fotopersbureau het Zuiden (‘Press Photo Agency Het Zuiden’, in ‘s-Hertogenbosch) all had subscriptions with De Spaarnestad and other magazines. The established rule was that once a photo had been acquired, it could not be published anywhere else. Working for De Spaarnestad, Van der Randen traded in newspaper journalism for reportage photography. Quite frequently, his reportages were furnished with his own texts, which attest to the smooth style of his writing.

Most of Van der Randen’s work has survived. At the NFGC/Spaarnestad Photo Archive, more than 1,200 Leica 35 mm film rolls comprising approximately 1,000 of his reportages are being preserved and conserved. Thanks to good documentation, much of his published work can be found in the various magazines. His work prior to this time can unfortunately no longer be ascertained.

In general, social conflicts played hardly any role in the reporting of the illustrated press. At the magazine Katholieke Illustratie, the atmosphere of social charity that existed at the time was brought to the readers’ full attention. Van der Randen was an important source of coverage on topics such as institutions for the deaf, dumb and blind, charitable work offered by the monasteries, and pastoral care. For these everyday kinds of reportages—on the dedication of the nuns, teachers, and the hardworking students at a training college for machine operators, or on a glass-blowing school—Van der Randen managed to portray a multi-faceted and refreshing picture with his camera and was able to translate the essence of a situation in eight or twelve exemplary images.

For most of the editors, it was an honour to venture out with Van der Randen on one of his reportage outings. They were assured not only of good company, but also of good photography, which enhanced the value of the articles in their magazines. Van der Randen was a much-desired photographer with a high rate of production. In March 1936 alone, he took photographs at the following successive locations: Muiden (sea fishing), Utrecht (a post office), Denekamp (a school for female farmers), IJmuiden (a trawler fleet), Breda (a school for housemaids), at the home of Minister Goseling, Smakt (St. Joseph’s pilgrimage), Amsterdam (the ‘Film Ball’), Amsterdam (the RAI Convention Centre), Amsterdam (football/soccer), and the rampart works at Muiden, Weesp, and Naarden.

For years, photo reportages on villages and cities in the Netherlands appeared in Katholieke Illustratie. Van der Randen also made the series Stad en Land (‘City and Country’), with Rie Sinnighe responsible for the text. Within a week of the German invasion on 16 May 1940, the Katholieke Illustratie announced it would be temporarily cutting back on the magazine’s size. On 2 May 1941, the ‘Journalistenbesluit’ (‘Journalists’ Decree’) was issued. Any photographer who did not wish or was not allowed to become a member of the pro-German ‘Verbond van Nederlandse Journalisten’ (‘Federation of Dutch Journalists’) suddenly found himself without an income. Van der Randen became a member and was able to continue working until 1942, at which point the Katholieke Illustratie was no longer being published (until after the war). Those photographers having a permanent contract with De Spaarnestad still received their pay. From this time forward, Van der Randen’s (substantially reduced) production virtually amounted to nothing more than cityscapes of Amsterdam, which were later published after 1946 on an incidental basis.

It was not until 1946 that the publication of magazines in the Netherlands gradually began to resume—a consequence of what was referred to as the ‘perszuivering’, i.e. the exoneration of the press. Once Van der Randen himself was exonerated by a committee set up for this purpose, his work began to appear once again in a variety of magazines.

On 7 May 1945, Van der Randen traveled from his home on the Leidsegracht in Amsterdam to the Dam Square, where the widely anticipated liberation was about to take place. The Canadian troops were advancing. Van der Randen had not been hired to be there for his employer in Haarlem, and as it would later turn out, he was not the only photographer there at the time. A veritable army of photographers was standing at various spots around the square, with among them Carel Blazer, Cas Oorthuys, Hans Sibbelee, Bert Haanstra, Kryn Taconis, Ad Windig, and Frits Lemaire. At 3:30 PM, machine guns were fired from the balcony of the ‘Grote Club’ (‘Great Club’, at the corner of the Kalverstraat and the Dam), directly into the masses that had gathered below on the square. The perpetrators were a number of soldiers from the German Kriegsmarine (‘War Navy’), who had remained behind in the city. In total, 22 people were killed and 122 injured. In the book De Dam 7 mei 1945 (‘The Dam 7 May 1945’) by F. Bool and V. Hekking—a publication that aims to demonstrate the significance of the photo as a historical source—ample attention is bestowed upon the images taken of this incident, including those of Van der Randen.

On the roof of the sexton’s residence of the Nieuwe Kerk (‘New Church’), Van der Randen had found the ultimate vantage point from which he took fifty-four shots. Because of their visual strength, several of these photos—in particular the photo of people crouching behind street lanterns in a queue formation—were published many times. Van der Randen’s account of this incident (in image and text) was not published until 8 May 1947 in the Katholieke Illustratie, accompanied by the heading: ‘The bloody Monday of 7 May 1945’ (the magazine itself resumed publication no earlier than 6 June 1946, as well in connection with the press exoneration committee).

After the war, Van der Randen went on to photograph liberation celebrations taking place around the country, just as the members of ‘De Ondergedoken Camera’ (‘The Illegal Camera’) did for Frits Kahlenberg in Amsterdam. Van der Randen’s next move was to photograph the destruction resulting from the war (in the south and east of the Netherlands on behalf of De Spaarnestad). His visual and written reportage on the devastation in his birthplace, Venlo, was particularly heartbreaking. With respect to the heavily damaged city of Venlo, Van der Randen relates: ‘A seemingly endless journey across roads shot to pieces, along minefields, ruins, burned-out tanks, and many, many soldier’s gravesites, finally brings us to the silhouette of the city. My God, this is no reunion, this is a post mortem. Just as family members of someone killed in an accident are sometimes only able to recognise their loved ones by a necklace or rosary, in the same way I recognise my hometown solely by the towers of its city hall.’ The photos accompanying this story depict the enormous ruins, as well as major and minor incidents of human suffering.

The subject of aviation, e.g. Schiphol Airport, Anthony Fokker and his airplane factory on the Uiver River, is a frequently recurring theme in Van der Randen’s oeuvre. Especially when dealing with this subject, he allows himself substantial liberty in the selection of his camera angles and image crops. Dynamic and expression, as it is frequently applied in works by the Russian avant-garde, are emphatically present in this photographic work. It is not known whether Van der Randen was aware of this Russian movement; there is no doubt he was aware of the Bauhaus. On occasion, one encounters the same kinds of striking images in his other reportages, which can be described as artistic. Van der Randen instilled his shots with an element of surprise, accomplished through a specifically chosen shooting angle or by positioning his subjects in an unusual way. He employed visual tools such as bird’s-eye perspectives, diagonal compositions, and bold crops. In this way, his work demonstrates an affinity with the essence of New Photography. Although press photography was not included in the Amsterdam exhibition Foto ’57, Van der Randen’s work would not have been out of place had it indeed been shown there.

The informal and direct representation of life holds an important place in Van der Randen’s work. He managed to avoid the anecdotal quality and sentiment that lie just beneath the surface when it comes to many of his subjects. Every once in a while, he decided to express these aspects intentionally, such as in his reportages on street markets.

Besides aviation, Van der Randen also loved theatre. His theatrical photography depicts a dynamic and theatrical emotion, remarkable for the possibilities available at the time. His portrait shots of the conductor Arturo Toscanini from 1937 are a good example. Van der Randen photographed the expressive musician in a manner liken to film. Toscanini is shown holding various postures, with a facial expression of the utmost concentration and zeal.

Van der Randen also photographed the stage revue—a form of theatre popular in the 1930s—and all of the flamboyance it entailed. Through his eye for the dancers, the stage decors, the extras sitting in a shadowy background, and especially the enjoyment of performing, he was able to create an exquisite rendering of many of the ‘Bouwmeester Revues’. The atmosphere of the actors interacting on the stage is sometimes almost tangible in these photos. Prominent actors—including Albert van Dalsum and Jan Musch—were portrayed by Van der Randen in their character roles, assuming a dynamic pose and a penetrating facial expression. By alternating the postures, the play of light, and the vantage point, Van der Randen was able to create photographic impressions that evoked the observer’s curiosity.

Starting in 1930, Van der Randen worked with the easily manageable, light-sensitive Leica camera, with interchangeable lenses and a flash. In this respect, he was one of the most advanced journalistic photographers in the Netherlands. De Spaarnestad employed a steady group of photographers who ventured out each and every day to make reportages. Many photographers were still using a Speed Graphic, often traveling by train while lugging along their cumbersome glass plates and camera lamps. As photographers were given only a limited amount of photo material to work with, everything had to be done with great economic efficiency. Van der Randen, by contrast, carried only a minimum of equipment around with him, and because he preferred available light, he had virtually no need of lamps. He developed his reportages during the evening in his own darkroom in Amsterdam and printed them immediately after.

In press photo circles, Van der Randen enjoyed a major reputation as a specialist in Leica cameras. It was not until much later that 35 mm cameras became an accepted phenomenon in Dutch media circles. Not until 1938 did the press photographers F.C. de Haan and W. Zeijlemaker first introduce the use of Leicas in the Netherlands, working on behalf of the NV Vereenigde Fotobureaux (‘NV United Photo Agencies’, source: C. van de Harten, Gemengd Nieuws, Amsterdamse persfoto’s 1920-1940 [‘Mixed News, Amsterdam Press Photos 1920-1940’]). Dr. Erich Salomon is another Dutch photographer who is known to have started working with a Leica in the 1930s. In February 1936, Salomon photographed the Dutch Prime Minister Colijn while giving a speech in the House of Representatives. In most cases, he sold his photos exclusively to the magazine Het Leven (‘Life’)—much to the displeasure of other media magazines. It was precisely this journalistic rivalry that motivated De Spaarnestad’s request for entry to the upper and lower houses of parliament as well, which ultimately led to the extending of unlimited access to all press photographers by the end of 1937. In 1937, Van der Randen and his colleague Henk Smit photographed the first sitting of Prime Minister Colijn’s ministerial council. Through his experience with a Leica (a camera allowing substantial freedom of movement) and his preference for available light, Van der Randen was the ideal person for this kind of work. He also possessed a healthy dose of intuition—an indispensable attribute for any photojournalist. In the field of politics, Van der Randen’s photos reveal a remarkable similarity to those of Salomon. Like him, he too became increasingly engaged in photographing members of high society at moments when they were off their guard.

The publication of an article by Van der Randen in the esteemed magazine Kleinbeeldfoto (’35 mm Photo’) in 1940 affirms the overall appreciation for his insight and technical expertise in the area of 35 mm photography. In this piece, he advises amateur photographers on the topic of photographing in stage theatres—one of his favourite subjects.

Despite the great frequency with which his work was published in the period spanning the two world wars, Van der Randen’s photography was soon forgotten after his death. Consequently, his oeuvre has never received the attention it deserves. Through his vision, Van der Randen made distinctive mark on the illustrated press in the years both preceding and following World War II. With his talent for observation and his capacity for empathy, he was able to capture themes having a distinct human profile.

By employing various modern means of visual communication, Wiel van der Randen was one of the few reportage photographers whose work can be considered ‘innovative’. He formed, as it were, a bridge between the avant-garde and photojournalists. It is for this reason that Van der Randen deserves a place in the history of Dutch photography.

Documentation