Hans Gerritsen - Original

Large (50 x 60cm) and unique black and white photo, made in 1994 by the famous (ballet) photographer Hans Gerritsen (1951-) at the premiere of "Introdans Gilles" (choreographer Hans Wiggers). In beautiful frame and signed, dated and titled on the passe partout. In very good, sharp condition.







Hans Gerritsen has an impressive oeuvre as a dance photographer. For many years he has fulfilled the role of house photographer for a number of dance companies, such as Scapino Ballet (since 1985) and Introdans (since 1983). In addition, he has photographed many performances by, among others, Djazzex, Dansgezelschap Reflex, Nederlands Dans Theater, Jazz Extension Dance Theatre and De Stilte.

Gerritsen has been active in professional dance photography since 1983, after having first made portraits and photos of products in the studio for a long time. Through his theatre technical work at LP Studio (later Introdans) he started photographing dancers during a summer course. That sparked his love for dance photography. In 1983 he founded the dance magazine Dans, which also made him stand out among professional companies and he was asked to record performances.
Gerritsen has taken both analogue and digital photos. In his analogue period, Gerritsen mainly shoots in black and white. In the first years of the new millennium, more and more analogue colour photos appear in the archive of the Theatre Institute Netherlands. This is at the time of digitalisation. Gerritsen responds to this by already shooting in colour before the transition to the new equipment. His black and white photos are characterised by a neutral contrast, which makes many details visible. He often knows how to use the light in such a way that clear, recognisable images are created.
Gerritsen uses a fairly conventional composition of images, in which the dancers are shown centered and full-length, in medium format. He makes almost no use of cropping and only occasionally works with different viewpoints. He mainly photographs from the spectator's point of view.
In the nineties his work became somewhat looser. This resulted in, for example, a crooked horizon or a high point of view. This increases the dynamics of the image and gives a new view of the representation, one that the viewer does not see. At the end of the nineties, however, he lets this go again.
The dynamics of dance can be captured in different ways. The photographer can choose to show motion blur, whereby for example an arm or a leg becomes blurred by the movement in combination with a slightly longer shutter speed. There are many possibilities here, whereby only a hand becomes blurred, or the entire dancer is shown as a blur. A photographer can also choose to freeze the movement completely by using a short shutter speed and therefore not show any motion blur. This sounds quite static, but it certainly is not. The photos are not posed, but taken during the dance. The feeling of dynamics now comes from the pose of the dancer and the moment of pressing the shutter. This is often during the peak of the movement. This is a short moment of rest and intensity, where the dancer neither goes up nor down. The expression of the feeling is at a peak here, which is clearly visible in a photo. The movement often also comes forward in the expression of the material and the tension in the muscles. Hans Gerritsen mainly uses this second method: freezing movement. This creates clear photos of the most exciting moments of the dance.
Some of Gerritsen's photos are reminiscent of the expressionist dance photos taken before and during World War II, such as those by Meinard Woldringh. These photos were taken in the photographer's studio, because of the lighting, and were often re-enactments of dances. They often have careful lighting and are bright due to a neutral contrast. Gerritsen achieves this same effect in some of the scene photos. They show the dancers centered in medium format. The emphasis is on the dancer's feeling and the way of expressing it. Furthermore, the lighting in the background gives the impression of a studio and there is no reference to the theater, even though the photos were taken of the scene. The photos are striking enough as stand-alone images and form a complete whole, where many other dance photos make one curious about the rest of the dance.
Hans Gerritsen also captured a few theatre performances. There is a clear difference between his dance and theatre photos. In his dance photos, he always keeps his distance from the stage and often shows the dancers from head to toe. In the theatre photos, the actors are approached more closely. According to him, the tension of dance is in the body, which must therefore be depicted in its entirety. Theatre is about a different kind of tension, which is built up over a longer period of time and is expressed in more facets than just the body and the music.
With digital technology, Hans Gerritsen, like other theatre photographers, started working in colour. Gerritsen had already used this regularly before the switch. The colours give an extra realistic dimension to the photos. Elements such as decor and costumes are better displayed. The problems with black costumes against a black background, which in black and white photography resulted in a large black area, have become much less, because details, the expression of the fabric and the lighting are more visible.
The oeuvre of Hans Gerritsen provides an overview of a number of important dance companies in the Netherlands. Because Gerritsen lets the dance speak for itself and tries to add few of his own ideas to the image, the photos provide clear representations of the dance.