TV report – Photographer Iwan Baan

TV magazine report on the exhibition »52 weeks, 52 cities« at the Marta, Herford

The MARTa Herford is showing photographs by Dutch photographer Iwan Baan in the exhibition »52 Weeks, 52 Cities«. The photographer is currently regarded as one of the most successful architectural photographers in the world. Although, as he says himself, he doesn't really know much about architecture and prefers to describe himself as a documentary photographer. Nevertheless, he is booked by the top league of architects, such as Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid or the Swiss Herzog & de Meuron. The fact that Iwan Baan is not a classic architectural photographer is clearly evident in his most recent work.

For the current exhibition, Iwan Baan travelled the world within a year. What sounds like restlessness is normality for him. He is in a permanent state of jet lag and lives out of a suitcase, as he tells us in an interview for the film. After his flat in Amsterdam burnt down last year, Iwan Baan lives in hotels all over the world. He travels around the world 365 days a year without interruption. He does his photo editing on the plane. That sounds worse than it is for most people. A citizen of the world in the truest sense of the word!

Baan is essentially travelling alone, supported only by an assistant who takes care of the paperwork at home. His equipment is also unusual. While other architectural photographers travel with a specialised camera and extensive equipment, Iwan Baan gets by with light equipment and small cameras, even dispensing with a tripod and working exclusively with natural light. If the weather doesn't play ball when working on location, for which there is rarely more than two or three days, this is not a shortcoming. »Rain can also be beautiful«, the Dutchman comments on his working conditions.

The photographs show his sensitive view of people and their living spaces and reveal that Iwan Baan is much more than a classic architectural photographer. His pictures reflect the world, moving, beautiful and sometimes with all its brutality!

Interesting too: The Polish Photographer Kacper Kowalski