Herbert Behrens

Kralingen Popfestival, Rotterdam (1970)

I came across this photo on tumblr and i thought this is really amazing. A good method to identify great photos is, when you look at them, you have to take a second look or more. To be honest, i thought that this is a photo from some fashion editorial, then i checked and its not! Its a candid that Herbert Behrens took when he was at Kralingen Popfestival. The girl is just look like some high fashion model. Whats so special about this photo? i guess its the girl's expression and the contrast of her gesture with the guys around her. Its seems like she was high.. like, floating.. dazed or just enjoying the music. The best thing is.. its candid.

I read somewhere that journalist photographer is capable to capture candid photos with strong character. Imagine if a fashion photographer and a journalistic photographer work together? the result must be very mesmerizing. Maybe i should try to learn more about journalistic photography? ;)

enough rambling, now lets focus on the person who took it.

HERBERT BEHRENS

In 1951, on completing a course in photography at the Fotovakschool, Herbert Behrens obtained a post as office boy at the Anefo press photo agency in Amsterdam. In 1957 he moved to Rotterdam to set up a branch office of the same agency, but decided four years later to strike out on his own. In the sixties and seventies, partly because of his first wife, fashion designer Fong Leng, he moved in unusual circles for a press photographer. He developed a keen interest in art, and photographed the Japanese artist Kusama as she painted the naked body of artist Jan Schoonhoven on November 3 1967. Today this is regarded as an important art-historical document from the early years of the happening.

As a photographer for the Rotterdam Hilton, Behrens took pictures of a host of famous hotel guests. Another important category in his archive consists of photos and slides of the 1970 Kralingen pop festival. A regular photographer for the magazine Sport Express, he witnessed the successes of the now legendary footballer Coen Moulijn and of Feijenoord, the Rotterdam team. Among the newspapers he worked for were De Rotterdammer, the Algemeen Dagblad, the Nieuwe Rotterdamse Courant and de Volkskrant. In 1947 he went to France and more or less abandoned photography. In 1975, back in the Netherlands, he taught at Crea and De Werkschuit in Amsterdam and at the Foundation for Art Education in Groningen, where he settled in 1978.

Central Station, Rotterdam (1964)

Cliff Richard and The Shadows in the Energiehal, Rotterdam (1964)

The Beach Boys in the Hilton, Rotterdam (1969)

SOURCE