Willie Jan Bons
Nature around me inspires me the most in my work, and I visualize this onto an different medium which is capable of capturing this thought.
Sometimes an image is a frozen moment of a composition, a capture of emotion, a interpretation of a theme or a picture that is no longer two dimensional but goes further for those who look deeper.
Willie-Jan Bons (20-10-1967)
Autonomous Fine art photographer from The Netherlands.
For more info: www.foto-art.nl
Biography
My Interest in photography started at the age of 15. After some years when I was graduated in Computer Science I became member of a photo club in the village where I live (Best, the Netherlands). In 1995 I started taking pictures in black and white and created a darkroom at the attic with a meopta black & white enlarger.
After some years I bought a medium format camera which I used for theatre work and weddings. I also developed the colour pictures myself.
Nature calls
Because my interest was more and more heading towards nature and still life, I bought a 4x5 field camera. I spend a lot of time in the woods around my village which is changing rapidly in to a nature park by “natuurmonumenten” and “brabants landschap” which is called “het groene woud”. These organisations prevent the nature to be disposed by the hunger for houses in this area. The more you walk In these areas, more is there to be seen.
Art
Besides working in the nature, I started taking still-life photos. I got a Sinar technical camera and made my own studio. Since 2007 I got a increasingly interest in art and started taking courses. Besides that I started sculpturing to find out what the 3D effect on sculptures did, and how it could help me in taking still-life photographs. Watch out if you follow the same path because you will get addicted too. In 2008 I founded a new community called FFotone for analogue photographers who come together each 2 weeks to talk about photography.
My Photographic Alternative Process history workshops
Liquid Light emulsion
Cyanotype
Palladium & Platinum workshop (by Witho Worms)
Bromoil workshop (by Jeroen de Wijs)
Lith workshop (by Wolfgang Moersch)
Wet collodium plates (by Quinn Jacobson)
Why using Alternative Processes?
These old processes result in a image that contains more than a picture. The structure of the material used adds a special feeling to the artwork. Each process has its own result and by combining the right image to the right process the outcome can be heavenly.
Analogue
I only use analogue photography equipment and use film to catch the scene.
An image must be unique. Alternative processes create this unique image which can not be duplicated.
Besides that the soul created with analogue material is what I like about it.
I personally dislike digital images because of the computerized sharpness, lack in real depth of field and color shifting. But others are of course free to do so. For me it does not work.
Website representation
The work shown here is scanned with a Epson 3200 or a digital photo made from the original print and is just a impression of the real picture.
Not the negative, but the print is photographed/scanned mostly to get the most realistic impression of the original work.
Willie-Jan Bons.
Thank you for your time.