sussman*spf10*research: Artist Entry: Martien Mulder 10.18.10

MARTIEN MULDER

I have a strong emotional connection to the beautiful lighting she utilizes in her personal work, more specifically, her landscapes. Mulder's imagery evokes a sense of loss and sadness, especially in her use of light, shadow and color.

Dutch-born Martien Mulder combines portraiture, fashion, landscape and still life photography. She lives in New York and her pictures have appeared in magazines such as Purple, 10 Magazine, French Vogue and Fantastic Man, and exhibitions have been staged in New York, Amsterdam and Tokyo.

Martien discovered her love for photography as a teenager. Her first pictures date from her high school years, when friends would pose willingly in her home-made studio. After her art history studies, with a major in contemporary photography, she decided to take her own pictures more seriously. By composing handmade books of her photographs, she established a visual language that connected to the magazine world. She started travelling the globe, wherever assignments would lead her, and created personal work at the same time. She has always been interested in the relationship between people and their environment.

The variety of her subjects asked for a strong consistency in style and approach. Martien creates stories that are truly minimalist. People seem to be at ease in front of her, and static objects are brought to life by her quietly focused attention. The essence of any subject is revealed without force. Her pictures are “pure”, “personal” and “universal”, and therefor find their way into magazines, advertising campaigns and galleries.

Up until today her handmade books are a very specific way to present her work. The books are visual stories that reflect a personal experience. With a focus on the natural and the real, Martien is always looking for the things that are delicately abstract. As a stylist once said of her work: “It has a rare and lovely lightheartedness. She is one of the few photographers out there who is doing work that does not undermine one’s self esteem, the way so many fashion or beauty images do. Her work is calmly reassuring.”

http://martienmulder.com/about/

QUOTES:

"It’s really important to have pictures you believe in published in magazines that you believe in, because they are seen by the people you want them to be seen by. Magazines are a huge platform for creativity. And there are so many and they are so specialized. if you choose well, and if you have a precise idea of your work, you can use the magazines to communicate beyond what your picture can communicate. It is the context that matters a lot, when your pictures go off into the world."

"I enjoy pointing my lens at many different subjects in search for the same result…a calm delicately abstract representation of them."

"It depends on who I talk to and what their references are. But to someone who doesn’t know much about photography, I tell them I shoot portraits. I try to portray things as they are. People, but also spaces and objects sometimes. I create pure and personal images of my surroundings in a very easy, calm and reassuring way."

Tillmans, Wolfgang. "Interview with Photographer Martien Mulder." BaseNow:Where speech is free and talk is cheap.. BaseNow, 12 December 2008. Web. 16 Oct 2010. .