The photographs by Dutch photographer Victor Meeussen are more than half a century old but they look like they were taken today. Meeussen is ranked among the European pioneers of color photography. The photographer was studying the possibilities of color its artistic aesthetics. Victor Meeussen photographed at the same time as American color photography pioneer Saul Leiter. Leiter lay dormant for decades until it was rediscovered. Almost nothing is known to the general public about Meessun’s personality even today. Working mostly as a commercial photographer in oil refineries automotive companies in his spare time Meeussen liked to shoot simple life scenes. He was attracted to people living emotions.
Meeussen’s bright colorful photographs show happy children e-commerce photo editing picturesque windows of flower shops atmospheric shots of street cafes labyrinths of an old garden bathers under big straw hats juicy fruits on the counters. We can easily get an idea of that era since Meeussen did not use stage productions. The things people and events transmitted by him look exactly as he saw them. He unexpectedly combined this literal approach with a great interest in subjective in Germany in the s. Representatives of this trend sought to express their attitude to the reproduced reality with the help of a picture as opposed to an objective image of what is happening. The photographer deliberately used a slow shutter speed shot out of focus took pictures with moving light catching reflections in water on glossy surfaces.
One of the brightest works of that period is a picture of a young gypsy woman in Spain with a sleeping child in her arms. The picture is slightly blurry it feels the movement the rapid turn of the mother’s head the awkward sleeping position of the baby it is amazingly alive and cinematic. Only a handful of similar author’s works by Meeussen have survived to this day. The oblivion of the photographer was facilitated by his difficult fate and life decisions which did not allow him to fully realize his knowledge and creative potential. He himself did not aspire to glory. Colleagues remember him as aloof very sensitive melancholy. Born into the family of a Dutch architect Victor Meessun dreamed of becoming either a doctor or a preacher in his youth.