Biography

Discussion

If Alfred Eisenstaedt’s statement ‘It’s more important to click with people than to click the shutter’ fits anyone, then it has to be Johan Vigeveno, the amiable, good-natured photographer, who greatly enjoyed putting people at ease. Among the photos on his first roll of film shot at Christmastime in 1957 with a camera he was given on his fourteenth birthday, is a black-and-white shot of his partner at the table during Christmas dinner. He would always consider this image to be one of the most beautiful photos in his oeuvre. His final photo, The Sleeping Beauty, shot for a poster of the Dutch National Ballet, was taken on 11 September 2000. In the intervening years, he photographed images with a great capacity for imagination, humour, and love for people, covering a wide variety of topics that all take place on the boundary between reality and fantasy.

Vigeveno’s father was a diplomat, which required that the family relocate on a frequent basis. ‘There’s not much consistency in my life. Everything is very much up and down and back and forth. This also applies to my different kinds of photography. It starts with the fact that if you are continually moving as the son of a diplomat, you can never attach anywhere (…) My ability to adapt is in part an aspect of my nature and in part the result of my early years.’ For Johan, there were many lonely periods. He saw very few other children and would withdraw into his own fantasy world.

Secondary school at Le Rosey, a distinguished boarding school in the village of Rolle on Lake Geneva, which moved to the ski resort town Gstaad in the winter, was a family substitute for Vigeveno. It was there that he made friends for life. The contacts and annual reunions later took him to the most exotic places around the world. Le Rosey was not a school that encouraged artistic development. During this time, however, Vigeveno actively drew and painted, and was also involved in acting and theatre.

Vigeveno’s path in life was not based on clear choices. After completing his studies at the Gymnasium (a prep or grammar school), he decided to attend Leiden University. It was what was expected of him back at home, while Johan himself felt he was lacking the necessary motivation to attend an art academy. He became a member of Minerva, a student fraternity in Leiden. Like the choice of his study, it was based more on an impulse, acting on the advice of his father and a cousin, not knowing that he could just as easily have chosen for another fraternity.

During his days studying in Leiden, Vigeveno was actively involved in various management boards and organisations. He was on the board of the student travel agency NBBS and, as a co-organiser of the student festival, maintained contacts with entertainers such as Conny Stuart and Paul van Vliet.

As an additional source of income, Vigeveno also taught English to young women studying to become secretaries. He designed and photographed the poster for the student film festival. When the first ‘Leids Studenten Kunstfestival’ (‘Leiden Students’ Art Festival’) organised a photo exhibition on the theme of ‘children’, Vigeveno submitted a number of photos. Much to his surprise, he took first, second, and third prize. One year later, the festival was devoted to the theme of ‘women’. Vigeveno took part once again, this time winning first prize.

The thesis with which Vigeveno completed law school was on the topic of copyrights on comic book figures, for which he had conducted interviews with Hergé (Tintin), Goscinny (Asterix & Obelix) and Thijs Chanowski (De Fabeltjeskrant ‘The Fables Newspaper’, a Dutch television show). His first job came as a result of his studies. Years later, he would also take part in a committee of the GKf (Gebonden Kunsten Federatie, vakgroep fotografie, ‘United Arts Federation, Department of Photography’) concerning copyrights. For the rest, however, Vigeveno’s background as a jurist had no significance.

An open interview with Thijs Chanowski in the early 1970s resulted in a permanent position as a producer of the project ‘tourist information’. The assignment involved making cassettes with image and sound as well as film strips with slides to be rented out to travel agencies in order to promote holiday stays in locations such as Bali, Acapulco, Benidorm, and Kenya. Supported by a research department, Vigeveno drew up the scenarios and hired copywriters and photographers. This made him popular with people in the photography world. Upon learning that Vigeveno was handing out holiday trips, photographers such as Ed van der Elsken, Hans Pelgrom, and Koen Wessing responded to the offer. The sale of the programmes was a disappointment, however, with Vigeveno having to do an increasing amount of the work himself. He was also of the opinion that he could do things better than the copyrighters he was hiring. Thanks to his international upbringing and his knowledge of languages, Vigeveno was able to write English and French versions effortlessly. It was only a small step before he also started shooting his own photos. The programme on Great Britain was photographed entirely by Vigeveno, that of Denmark in part. At the end of 1972, the project was shut down due to a lack of commercial success, with Vigeveno unemployed as a result.

It was at this point that Vigeveno decided to begin for himself. He ‘established himself’ as a copywriter, producer, graphic designer, and a photographer of diaporamas (‘banddia’) presentations, stating no clear preference for any one of these disciplines. At the same time, he undertook an active search to obtain photo assignments. He presented his children’s photos to the editorial department of the magazine Ouders van Nu (‘Parents of Now’), which bought the publication rights for thirty of his photos. Through Ouders van Nu, Vigeveno came into contact with the editors at Mensen van Nu (‘People of Now’). His photos were also published in this magazine and he likewise received a number of assignments. Vigeveno showed the travel photos shot for Chanowski to the women’s magazine Libelle, resulting in an assignment to make several travel reportages. These publications in turn exposed Vigeveno’s work to others, with the number of clients steadily growing. By 1978, he felt that the quality of his own photos was getting better, but it was still not until 1983 that he dared refer to himself as a bona fide photographer.

In 1974, Vigeveno started up a company specialised in audiovisual presentations, together with Bernie IJdis: IJdis/Vigeveno. The initiative for this collaboration came from IJdis. The two men knew each other from the advertising agency KVH, where IJdis’s clients included the International Wool Secretariat. Vigeveno and IJdis had founded a magazine for this company. As a team, IJdis thought up the sales promotions for companies and oversaw the finances. Vigeveno was responsible for making the diaporamas, which entailed writing the copy, doing the design, photographing and production. In doing so, he took on the lion’s share of the work. In addition, he also carried out individual photo assignments. The diaporama programmes for the Internationaal Wool Secretariat were shown worldwide. As a result, he was commissioned to make a diaporama programme for the collective ‘Gold’ campaign. Vigeveno traveled around the world in connection with the products wool and gold. He met, for instance, gold smugglers in India and the pianist Walter Valentino Liberace (1919-1987), whom he photographed sitting behind his gold grand piano.

The only schooling in photography that Vigeveno had undertaken were the two workshops he followed at the former Canon Gallery in Amsterdam. The first was given during the spring of 1983 by the American conceptual photographer Duane Michals. In his photos and texts, Michals depicts his own experiential world as reality in photos and texts. His photography is more akin to narrative poetry and surrealist painting than documentary or journalistic photography. Vigeveno identified both with Michals’ work and his sense of humour. It was a comforting idea that he too added text beneath his photos. In the context of the workshop, Vigeveno produced a sequence about a jealous man who suspects his girlfriend is unfaithful, as a parody of Michals’ oeuvre: ‘From the ease with which I made that story in a half-day, you can tell that Michals’ style was to my liking. I have not been influenced by him, but do feel recognition.’ In 1984, Vigeveno took part in the workshop of Frank Horvat, an Italian fashion photographer living in France. Horvat worked for famous magazines such as Picture Post, Life, Elle, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, and Twen.

Vigeveno was active in various areas in which photography was applied: portrait, advertising, fashion, and illustrative photography, as well as conceptual, staged photography. He felt no desire to limit himself to any one genre, on one hand because he liked everything, on the other hand because he enjoyed taking on new challenges. He shot portraits for the magazine Marie Claire for a period of five years. The Dutch woman’s magazine Viva used him as a fashion photographer. For the Dutch glossy Elegance, Vigeveno produced—besides fashion—a monthly series on the dreams of renowned Dutch people. In Man, he published both fashion photos and portraits. He did an extensive series in colour for Elle, the so-called ‘chain photo’. This went from one person to the next, for instance, the politician Hedy d’Ancona, who was able to decide with whom she wished to be portrayed. The person she chose was then able to select someone whom he/she wished to appear in the next photo. It became a long series. Vigeveno also shot portraits for Avenue. In the end, he worked for virtually all of the Dutch glossy magazines, without any conflict of interest. In addition, Vigeveno photographed for the theatre. In the 1990s, he was the regular photographer of the Dutch National Ballet. He was also registered with Thed Lenssen Film as a director of ‘commercials’.

Portrait photography is an important component of Vigeveno’s oeuvre. The psychological aspect thereof particularly intrigued him. The architect Herman Hertzberger teasingly asked at the beginning of his portrait shoot: ‘How do you think you’re going to bring out the real ‘me’ in twenty minutes?’ This is indeed the challenge: to get a person’s personality to surface in the short span of a session. Vigeveno’s first portrait was of the actor Fons Rademakers. It took him fifteen minutes to complete it. Not long after that, Vigeveno came across a portrait of Rademakers shot by the photographer Taco Anema, which was precisely the same as his. ‘That actor had simply put on his photo face,’ Vigeveno related. ‘That’s when I realised it was not all that simple. Especially actors put up a big fit. They are aware of every muscle in their face and are very familiar with how to show up in the photo as favourably as possible.’

Vigeveno was gifted at using his natural charm to put people at ease very quickly. Once he had figured out how to get people to take off their masks—it often seemed as if he was just fooling around, which could lead to hilarious situations—his ‘clients’ frequently revealed more of themselves than they realised.

Vigeveno shot his first advertising photos in 1980, for the Stichting Geluidshinder (‘Noise Pollution Foundation’) on assignment for the advertising agency Hammerschmidt House. He functioned at his best, when the assignment was as open as possible. He was given no texts or sketches, but themes such as ‘street clamour’, ‘neighbours in the garden’, or ‘noise in the house’. Early on a Saturday morning, for instance, Vigeveno took a photo of a former girlfriend sitting on a large staircase. For years, this photo served as a kind of visual logo for the Stichting Geluidshinder as well as the basis for a television commercial. Because Vigeveno had no experience as a director, at least not with moving images, a professional director was hired. The model, however, only wanted to work when Vigeveno was on the set, so that she could be directed by him. During a holiday in the United States in 1983, Vigeveno received word that the De Beers diamond company was commissioning him to photograph for an advertising campaign. He rushed back to the Netherlands. There was no way he was going to miss an opportunity to work in total freedom with an almost unlimited budget and top models from the United Kingdom.

Gregor Frenkel Frank of the Grey advertising agency had seen Vigeveno’s photos in the magazine Mensen van Nu and had decided to hire him immediately for a campaign on behalf of Collectieve Levensverzekering (‘Collective Life Insurance’). The reason was that he wanted the photos to be ‘naturel’. In Frenkel Frank’s view, one rarely encountered the warmth and honesty that Vigeveno’s photos radiated. Advertising photography was filled with an excess of posing. He went on to hire Vigeveno as well to photograph for an advertising campaign concerning the cigar manufacturer Oud Kampen. They would end up working together for Oud Kampen for a total of ten years.

As a staging, conceptual photographer, Vigeveno was of an exceptional calibre. His major strength, and his greatest pleasure, lay in conceiving and arranging photos, as well as in the conception and execution of photographed narratives. He did a number of visual narratives for the magazine Man, featuring himself as the main character: a Woody Allen type, involved in fighting a losing battle with fashion and the fitness culture.

The magazines approached Vigeveno primarily for his staged photography. While it was indeed something he was good at, over time he began to tire of this genre and long for something different: ‘I wasn’t just looking for new challenges. Up to 1987, I was doing only illustrative photography. The subjects that the magazines come with are repeated regularly. ‘Having an affair’ is a theme that returns every year. I believe I’ve done ‘hyperventilation’ seven times and ‘postnatal depression’ about three times. I have no desire to do ‘incest’ again. As I already had a very strong picture the first time around. That’s why I wanted to do something different and let the editorial departments know I wanted to produce fashion photos.’

When the Vigeveno family moved from France to Denmark in 1956, Johan’s sister Sveeva remained in Paris, where she shared an apartment with Brigitte Bardot. Sveeva was determined to become a model and would succeed in doing so. Through her stories about the modelling profession and the photographers Helmut Newton and Irving Penn, for whom she modelled, Johan had become interested in fashion photography at a young age. At the time, this interest had no influence on his choice. Only after years of doing staged and advertising photography, as well as so-called ‘realistic’ portrait photography, did he make the switch to fashion photography based on his desire to do to practicing ‘pure’ photography.

Rupert van Woerkom, in the 1980s chief editor of the magazines Elegance and Man, was familiar with Vigeveno’s work exclusively through the ‘Sumatra Cum Laude’ campaign for Oud Kampen. Vigeveno showed him his portfolio, expressing his wish to do fashion photography. Van Woerkom and his staff judged his work to be too contrived, too epic, and above all, too cheerful. Other photos in his portfolio, however, did appeal to them: especially the man behind the photographer, they found to be interesting, vulnerable, and unaffected. In Van Woerkom’s opinion, Elegance was ill suited to Vigeveno, as it would not give him the chance to fully manifest his ideas. When Van Woerkom released his magazine Man in 1985, however, he turned to Vigeveno. He was subsequently commissioned to do a fashion reportage as well as portrait photography.

The creative director Lodewijk van der Peet also worked frequently with Vigeveno. In 1980, Van der Peet worked at the advertising agency Hammerschmidt House, for whom Vigeveno had done the Stichting Geluidshinder campaign. The collaboration, however, dates from after this time, at the Wunderman advertising agency. Vigeveno was more or less forced to do so by the firm’s creative director, Nico Dresmé. Van der Peet recalls: ‘When I arrived at Wunderman, Nico had already worked with Johan for PTT Post. In 1983, I was allowed to do the follow-up campaign, so it was logical that I worked with Johan. We became friends, close friends even. I wanted a photo of a family that had to look as if it had been taken by a local photographer, such as a wedding or passport photographer. As a preliminary study, Johan and I went to a real people’s photographer to have ourselves photographed and all the while observing the craft. That photographer asked for what purpose the portrait was intended. For our mother in Australia, we said. From that time on we were brothers and have remained that seventeen years long.’

Van der Peet felt that Vigeveno was too easily prone to thinking he could do anything. He thought his portraits were strong, but his fashion photography stranded. Vigeveno paid more attention to the narrative side as opposed to the aesthetic: ‘For Johan it was something like “a hell of a job” to get things sharp, let alone photographing structure well.’ Fashion photography has to show the clothing, material texture, and beauty.

Vigeveno was not a technical person. He compensated this by hiring good technical assistants, who in turn were able to teach him how to deal with models. His best collaboration was with Pieter van der Heijden, who later became a lighting technician, because he was the type of assistant who saw a lamp was out as soon as he arrived and then immediately set out to repair it. When it came to ideas, Vigeveno had no need of an assistant. While it sometimes seemed as if he was just messing about, he never did anything without a reason. Everything from A to Z was stored in his head. His approach was uninhibited, he liked many things, including the suggestions of others, but at the same time he did exactly what was in his head. Not everyone thought that he was a good photographer, but, as a conceptual photographer, Vigeveno’s clients saw him as someone who stood out above many others.

In 1991, the Canon Gallery in Amsterdam organised an exhibition featuring work by Vigeveno, under the title Hardop dromen (‘Dreaming Aloud’). Vigeveno’s initial response to exhibiting his work was negative. In his view, he had no personal style and was therefore out of place in a gallery. The gallery’s aim, however, was to show that, even in a varied oeuvre, the mark of the maker is distinctly present. The exhibition indeed showed that Vigeveno’s photos, despite the wide range of themes, clearly conveyed the photographer’s personality. To his own surprise, Vigeveno concluded: ‘That diversity wasn’t weakness, but rather my strength’.

Vigeveno taught classes as a guest instructor at various institutions, including the ABK in Rotterdam, together with the photographer Wout Berger, and at the HKU (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, ‘School of the Arts’) in Utrecht, together with a stylist, where he gave a one-week seminar two times a year. Vigeveno also taught classes at the MTS voor fotografie en fotonica (Middelbare Technische School, ‘Intermediate Technical School of Photography and Photonics’) in The Hague, as well as at the De Moor Cultural Centre, Fotogram, the Rietveld Academy, and the RABK (Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, ‘National Academy of Fine Arts’) in Amsterdam. Together with Hans Aarsman, and later Lodewijk van der Peet, Vigeveno organised the programme De Nationale Fotoquiz (‘The National Photo Quiz’) for Het Fotocafé (The Photo Café) at De Moor (later called the ACF, Amsterdams Centrum voor Fotografie, ‘Amsterdam Centre of Photography’). Fifteen short documentary films were shot for the programme at the studios of photographers Kees de Graaf and Bertien van Manen. Every cliché and stereotype was introduced, with Vigeveno playing all of the roles. He proved to be a skilled actor and was especially brilliant in the role of Andy Warhol.

The supervisory board of the PANL (Photographers Association of the Netherlands) had seen Vigeveno presenting the programme De Nationale Fotoquiz. His performance had made an impression. When in 1995 the Stichting PANL held a discussion night on the topic of whether it should close its doors or continue further, Vigeveno was asked to lead the talk. At the end of the night, he offered to assume the role of chairman. With his charismatic appeal, Vigeveno managed to put together entirely new management board and secretariat. Under his chairmanship, the PANL went from being a foundation to becoming an association with many active members. In 1998, Vigeveno decided to take more time off to be with his family. He transferred his chairmanship at the PANL to the photographer Boudewijn Neuteboom. Upon his departure, the board made Vigeveno an honorary member.

Johan Vigeveno was a world citizen. He made contacts easily, and in doing so, he came into contact with various creative and commercial sectors involved in the production of images. The manner in which he worked, both from a registrational and conceptual perspective—without relying on strict precepts—has resulted in an intriguing and distinct oeuvre in Dutch portrait, advertising, and fashion photography.

Documentation