Aat Veldhoen – Polaroids

With the introduction of the polaroid camera in 1947 it became possible, for the first time, to develop photos immediately, without the intervention of a photo lab. The technique quickly enjoyed widespread popularity among artists. The opportunity to immediately assess the end result and if necessary to make a new photo certainly contributed to this. Veldhoen also used the polaroid as aide mémoire and for preliminary studies and sometimes even for capturing fleeting situations.

But for him, the polaroid was more than just a tool. This can be seen in the polaroids taken as independent images and taken with a great sense of ambience, light, colour and composition, such as the intimate insights into Veldhoen’s home life, portraits, selfportraits, nudes, holiday snaps and images of a documentary nature. Special features are the so-called manipulated polaroids, a technique adopted from the US whereby spectacular effects are achieved by drawing with a sharp object on the unhardened film emulsion. Veldhoen mastered this technique, which enabled him to manipulate reality in the finest details. Veldhoen developed a true passion for the medium and created more than five thousand photos. Despite their high quality, these unique images suffered a hidden existence for many years.

This publication includes a representative selection of around fifty polaroids and is intended as a first introduction to Veldhoen’s polaroids, which effortlessly compete with the work of renowned polaroid photographers.