andere kijk op Holland|Ruud H.M. Kok,Kees Scherer 9010046621

||boek: Een andere kijk op Holland|Ruud H.M. Kok|Kees Scherer|Elsevier

||door: Kees Scherer

||taal: nl
||jaar: 1983
||druk: ?
||pag.: 160p
||opm.: hardcover|zo goed als nieuw|mét flap|>A4 formaat

||isbn: 90-10-04662-1
||code: 2:000443

--- Over het boek (foto 1): Een andere kijk op Holland ---

Foto-tekstboek over Holland in 6 talen

Een andere kijk op ... Holland gaat over het land beneden de zeespiegel, over de mensen die er wonen, over de steden die ze hebben gebouwd, over het land dat ze hebben ontgonnen en de industrie die ze hebben gegrondvest.

In boeiende teksten en schitterende foto's komen onder meer ter sprake: het Nederland van de Gouden Eeuw, het statige Nederland, het gemoedelijke Nederland en het landelijke Nederland.

[bron: flaptekst]

--- Over (foto 2): Kees Scherer ---

Christoffel Johannes (Kees) Scherer (Amsterdam, 16 april 1920 - 19 april 1993) was een Nederlandse fotograaf die bekendheid verwierf door zijn straatfotografie en zijn bijdrage aan de Nederlandse fotojournalistiek.

Levensloop

Vroege leven

Scherer werd geboren op de Lijnbaansgracht in de Amsterdamse Jordaan. Zijn vader, Theo Scherer, was een havenarbeider en een socialist van het eerste uur. Zijn moeder, Wilhelmina Koster, kwam uit het Zeeuwse Wemeldinge.

Carrière

Na de bevrijding in 1945 begon Scherer zijn carrière als freelance-fotograaf voor kranten en tijdschriften. Hij maakte naam met zijn reportages over de watersnoodramp in 1953 en de Hongaarse opstand in 1956. In 1955 was hij een van de medeoprichters van World Press Photo. Dit initiatief groeide uit tot 's werelds meest gezaghebbende fotomanifestatie, waaraan jaarlijks ruim 15.000 beroepsfotografen uit bijna 70 landen deelnemen.

Scherer ontwikkelde zich tot een wereldverkennend fotojournalist. Hij publiceerde jarenlang in Margriet en Avenue, dat hij had helpen oprichten, en behoorde tot de generatie fotografen die reportagefotografie toegankelijk maakte voor een breed publiek. Hij werkte samen met schrijvers als Ed Hoornik, Max Dendermonde, Bert Schierbeek en Evert Werkman. Hij maakte veel reisreportages met de journalisten Ruud H.M. Kok en Peter Lichtenauer en met Peter van der Velde, die hij als jong fotograaf in dienst nam. Deze samenwerking zou tot 1974 duren.

Naast reportages verzorgde Scherer de fotografie van een groot aantal kalenders en tal van fotoboeken. Hij creëerde voor uitgeverij Elsevier een serie boeken Kijk op....., die stedelijke schoonheid en de natuurpracht van de Nederlandse provincies in beeld bracht.

Fotografie stijl en invloed

Scherer's fotografie wordt gekenmerkt door zijn eerlijke en onverbloemde weergave van het dagelijks leven in de jaren vijftig en zestig. Zijn foto's zijn niet alleen een documentatie van de werkelijkheid, maar ook een reflectie van zijn socialistische overtuigingen. Scherer's werk is tentoongesteld in verschillende musea, waaronder het Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Zijn foto's zijn ook opgenomen in de collectie van het Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Privéleven

Op dezelfde dag dat zijn boek Zuiderzee, dood water, nieuw leven uitkwam, werd Scherer getroffen door een beroerte. Sindsdien kon hij niet meer spreken, schrijven of foto's maken. Hij werd opgenomen in het hospice Het Zonnehuis in Amstelveen. Scherer overleed op 19 april 1993. Zijn nautische collectie wordt na zijn dood geveild en vormt de financiële basis voor de Stichting FotoArchief Kees Scherer. De Stichting stelt een tweejaarlijkse prijs ter waarde van 5000 euro in, de Foto Kees Scherer Prijs, voor het beste fotoboek dat in de twee jaar voorafgaand aan de uitreiking van de prijs in Nederland is verschenen.

[bron: wikipedia]

Kees Scherer

Abstract

Kees Scherer belongs to the first wave of post-war professional documentary photographers in the Netherlands, along with Cas Oorthuys, Sem Presser, and Carel Blazer. The city was his working terrain, with people on the street receiving much of his attention and serving as a source of social involvement. No other photographer took advantage of light like Scherer - in all of its capacities, from early morning till late at night. He liked to use raking light, backlighting, and long shadows, introducing lyricism and drama to his photography. Scherer's later work consisted of travel reportages shot in colour. During the 1970s, he also produced countless images in colour for various series of books on the Dutch provinces that were popular at the time.

Biography

1920

Christoffel Johannes (Kees) Scherer is born on 16 April at Lijnbaansgracht 58 in the Jordaan neighbourhood of Amsterdam. Kees' father, Theo Scherer, is a dockworker (a 'loopknecht', an errand boy) and a member of the SDAP (Sociaal Democratische Arbeiders Partij, 'Social Democratic Workers Party'). His mother, Wilhelmina Koster, originates from Wemeldinge (Walcheren).

1929

The Scherer family moves to Nieuwe Leliestraat 96-III, also in the Jordaan neighbourhood of Amsterdam.

1933

The Scherer family moves to Van Beuningenstraat 44-III in Amsterdam West.

By this time, the family totals four children: Christoffel Johannes, Dirk Abraham, Charles Christiaan, and Martje Elisabeth.

1940

Scherer's mother, Wilhelmina Koster, dies at the age of sixty-two. Scherer leaves his parental home and moves to a room in the vicinity of the Admiraal de Ruyterweg in Amsterdam West.

1948-'54

During these years, Scherer collaborates with a photographer named Kerkhoff, working under the name of 'Kerkhoff & Scherer'. The business is located at Kloveniersburgwal 41 in Amsterdam.

1950

Kees Scherer sets up business on his own at Kloveniersburgwal 41, with a press photo agency for newspapers and weeklies, as well as publicity photos.

1955

Together with the photographers Ben van Meerendonk (general secretary) and Bram Wisman, Scherer sits on the Exhibition Comittee for the first World Press Photo Exhibition.

1966

While traveling across Europe to do reportage work on behalf of the publishing company De Geïllustreerde Pers ('The Illustrated Press'), Scherer is shot with a machine gun shot in his car during a robbery on the Italian island of Sardinia on 17 June. A bullet hits him in the back, pierces a lung, and disappears into the dashboard. Scherer recovers at a hospital in Nuoro, Sardinia.

1969-'70

Kees Scherer is a member of the international jury for the World Press Photo contest.

1978

Scherer moves to the country estate 'Borchgrave' at Kerkelijk 2 in Heerde together with his wife Mariska, whom he met in the 1970s. He also moves his photography practice to the same address.

1984

Scherer divorces his wife and moves to a house in Medemblik on the water near the harbour, which has a strong attraction for him. Ocean sailing is Scherer's hobby. He possesses an impressive nautical collection, including J. Blaeu's world atlas.

1985-'93

Scherer experiences a stroke on 18 October, the day of the presentation of his book Zuiderzee. Dood water nieuw leven ('Zuiderzee. Dead Water, New Life'). From this time forward, he is unable to speak, write, and shoot photographs. Scherer is admitted to the Zonnehuis nursing home in Amstelveen.

1987

Joop Swart, Peter Lichtenauer, and Henk Schuurmans initiate the founding of the 'Stichting FotoArchief Kees Scherer' ('Kees Scherer Photo Archive Foundation'). The foundation's aim is to maintain, manage, and utilise Scherer's photographic archive. This task is undertaken by the photographer Pim Westerweel. On 16 April, Scherer is awarded a prize called 'De Fotograaf' ('The Photographer'), together with Bram Wisman and Ben van Meerendonk. The prize itself is a small bronze statue, designed and executed by the sculptor Marcus Ravenswaaij and awarded to individuals or organisations that have made a special contribution to the realisation of the World Press Photo's objectives. Peter Lichtenauer accepts the prize on Kees Scherer's behalf.

1993

On 9 January, Kees Scherer dies at the Zonnehuis nursing home. His nautical collection is sold at auction following his death, with the acquired funds serving as the financial basis for the Stichting FotoArchief Kees Scherer. The foundation establishes a biennial prize amounting to 5,000 euros, awarded to the best photobook appearing in the Netherlands in the preceding two years.

2002

Kees Scherer's archive is transferred to the Maria Austria Institute in Amsterdam.

Discussion

The only written piece to be found concerning Kees Scherer's training period is an article in Focus magazine from 1963. The young Scherer was taught the principles of photography by the professional photographer Nico Zomer. Prior to the war, Zomer had operated his own studio for corporate and advertising photography in Amsterdam. After the war, he moved his business to Haarlem. It was probably during his days in Amsterdam that Zomer taught Scherer how to photograph. Zomer was part of the post-war NFK (Nederlandse Fotografen Kunstkring, 'Netherlands Photographers Art Society'), a professional association organised by and for technical and industrial photographers. Collectively, the photographers of the NFK possessed a great deal of knowledge in the area of photographic technique, which they linked to artistic craftsmanship. It was in this atmosphere that Kees Scherer learned his vocation.

After the war, Scherer initially did the same kind of corporate photography that he had learned in Zomer's studio. His archive includes a drawer holding several dozen 9x12 glass negatives and sheet films covering a wide variety of topics, ranging from the interior of the royal palace on the Dam Square and machinery on display at the obligatory trade shows, to images of office and working spaces. Yet there are also photos published under the name of 'Kerkhoff & Scherer' in the magazine Ons Vrije Volk ('Our Free People'), which depict Surinamese celebrations in Amsterdam commemorating the eighty-fifth anniversary of the abolition of slavery. Two years later, Scherer established his own press photo agency in Amsterdam. Here he would devote more and more time to shooting photos for newspapers and weeklies, as well as publicity photos. From this period, his archive includes an extraordinary series of glass negatives with exterior shots of the Anne Frank House. Written on the envelope for these images is the word 'Fox' - a reference to the film company involved in the making of the motion picture Diary of Anne Frank in 1958. The photos themselves were taken prior to August 1958, confirming that Scherer was using his studio camera to do commissioned work well into the late 1950s.

Although Scherer had been a member of the NVF (Nederlandse Vereniging van Fotojournalisten, 'Netherlands Association of Photojournalists') since 1949, he was still seeking greater recognition. In 1955, he tried to gain membership in the NFK (Nederlandse Fotografen Kunstkring, 'Netherlands Photographers Art Society'), probably through Nico Zomer. It was an odd manoeuvre. Up until this time, Scherer had profiled himself as a documentary photographer, a genre that members of the NFK were unlikely to have aspired to. The photos that he had sent in for evaluation, which included a blurred photo of a flock of seagulls taking off, were promptly returned to him. For the NFK, blur was out of the question. Scherer responded by letter: 'In the meantime, I have come to an agreement with Mr. Schiet [secretary of the NFK's Amsterdam chapter] that when my cat again wants to catch a seagull in its claws, I will be sure to contact him in order to set up several spotlights, so that, with respect to the lighting, I'll be able to meet the requirements of the NFK.' He then concluded: 'I will then by no means be making further use of your invitation to send in a more 'convincing' collection, for the very simple reason that I feel no need to convince the NFK and its jury of my potential qualities.' And with this, Kees Scherer turned his back on the NFK.

The index card system that Scherer maintained gives an overall impression of his commissions over the years, although the names of his clients are cited somewhat sporadically. The dates are also frequently lacking. The subjects in the card system are indeed furnished with a negative number, but these numbers provide no guarantee of an optimum chronology. They offer little guidance. The earliest dated subject is a documentary series on London from 1948; the most recent black-and-white series is a travel reportage made in Mexico from 1966. Among his clients are the (weekly) magazines Eva, De week in beeld ('The Week in Pictures'), Vizier, Margriet, Romance, Revue, Elsevier, and Avenue, as well as the publishing company 'Het Wereldvenster' and the advertising agencies Holdert (coal campaign), Van Maanen, DelaMar, and Prad. Scherer's 6x6 black-and-white archive comprises approximately 50,000 images.

In terms of theme and choice of subject matter, Scherer's work is not exceedingly different from other photographers in his day. The same applies to his clients. Scherer photographed for De week in beeld, a magazine that likewise featured photos by Cas Oorthuys and Sem Presser. Scherer photographed anything his clients asked him: the silk bobbins in Wijdenes, a horse camp for children in Kootwijk, a billiards club for women, learning to ride a bicycle in Spakenberg, the Colorado potato beetle in Scheveningen, or edelweiss in Dedemsvaart. These items formed the trivia that filled the post-war illustrated magazines in the Netherlands. Serious subjects were far more rare: the Zeeland flooding disaster in 1953, the Hungarian Uprising in Budapest in November 1956, and the mining disaster at Marcinelle in 1956.

With the exception of jazz photography, cultural themes are rarely encountered in Scherer's archive: an occasional artist's portrait, a photo of a renowned writer or some other member of the cultural elite. He was in no way involved in (studio) portrait photography.

Yet Scherer was the opposite of a photographer possessing merely a superficial viewpoint. This opinion was shared by the many writers and reviewers who characterised his work over the years. Scherer was described as 'an eager autodidactic street photographer', and praised for 'extricating the extraordinary from the ordinary', and on a continual quest in search of 'irregularities, the exceptional, the ironic, and the alienating.' His photos were found to have bravura. In comparison with other documentary photographers, he was perhaps more successful in capturing 'the feel of the street'.

Scherer was not one to deny his modest origins. He was a man of the working class, in the positive sense of the word. His commitment to the man or woman on the street seemed at times greater than that of the photographers mentioned above. Scherer liked to get right on top of his subjects. He also photographed much more frequently in the working-class neighbourhoods of Amsterdam when compared to other documentary photographers.

Another aspect of Scherer's black-and-white documentary photography is his sympathy for his subject, which he presented with irony. When examining the photo reportages on the flooding disaster in Zeeland made by Henk Jonker, Aart Klein, and Eva Besnyö, Scherer's work by contrast was perhaps more ironic in tone. Scherer's creative use of backlighting and lengthy shadows in his black-and-white images was also praised on numerous occasions: stylistic devices introduced far less frequently by others in the profession, earning him the title of the 'veritable poet of light'. As well in this respect - in his use of backlighting, raking light, and poetic light - he was addicted to the street and in love with the city. This applied not just to Amsterdam, but to London, Paris, and New York as well. Scherer's compassion for people on the street (whether packaged in irony or not), his use of backlighting, the irregularities, the bravura, and a genuine love of his city: all of these elements came together in his best book: 24 uur Amsterdam ('24 Hours Amsterdam'). Never before had a book of this kind had been published before and its appearance was a success.

'In the hope that this worthless photo material will continue to remind you of Amsterdam', as Scherer wrote in his book dedication to Sem and Joke Presser, who were living in Roquebrune, France, at the time. The book, which appeared in a Dutch/English bilingual edition, was modestly conceived. The idea behind it was also unique, providing a picture of people living and working in the city, from early morning one day to the early morning of the next. The flap copy for Scherer's book proudly proclaimed that this was the most original and surprising photobook '(...) that has ever been published before' about the city on the Amstel.' Between the photos were the poetic lines of Ed Hoornik's written text, which were anything but meaningless words just to accompany a pretty picture. In fact they drew the reader's attention back to the image a second time, thus turning the book into an intense viewing experience. Philips, the Dutch electronics manufacturer in Eindhoven, had a reprint made of the book bearing the company imprint, which was then sent out as a gift to its business relations.

Was the concept of 24 uur Amsterdam new? Somewhat comparable in terms of conception were famous photobooks such as Bill Brandt's A Night in London (1936) and André Kertész's Day of Paris (1945). Cas Oorthuys also employed the visual narrative of a city portrayed from its waking to its sleeping hours in the very first edition of the Contact series, published in 1951 under the title of Bonjour Paris, Bonsoir Paris, Au Revoir Paris. Yet there is still very little comparison between this work and 24 uur Amsterdam. The small page spread of the Contact pocket photobook left no space for the typographic rhythm between the words, image, and pages that makes 24 uur Amsterdam (in A4 format) so intriguing. 24 uur Amsterdam employs a pronounced visual rhyming, consisting of three or more photos on a two-page spread, to capture one's attention in a way that Bonjour Paris does not. In Oorthuys' publication, photos are either accompanied by an informational text found below or serve as an illustration adjacent to a page filled with text. Encouraged by the success of 24 uur Amsterdam, two other Amsterdam publishing companies, Scheltema & Holkema and H.J.W. Becht, combined their effort, and in the fall of that same year, launched the book Amsterdam by the photographer Emiel van Moerkerken.While based on the same concept as 24 uur Amsterdam, Van Moerkerken's book, with the four seasons as its theme, was far more topographical in nature. Amsterdam was published not only in Dutch and English, but also in French, German, and Spanish!

In August 1955, Scherer exhibited an overview of his travel photography shot in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea at La Cave Internationale, a restaurant on the Herengracht canal in Amsterdam where the owner regularly featured the work of new photographic talent. Scherer displayed a series about a community of gypsies in the Camargue region of Southern France, together with his favourite shots, including a policeman who falls from a horse and a girl dancing to bebop. In spite of its modest scope, the exhibition received various positive reviews. 'Scherer's work is not photography but rather photocalligraphy', wrote the weekly magazine Elseviers Weekblad. Scherer was attributed with an approach akin to film, accompanied by the observation that the cinematic nature of many modern photos was a quality that many have as yet failed to recognise. This was likely a reference to Scherer's ability to retain a fluid linear rhythm in his photos. Although 'he sometimes perhaps goes a bit too far in poking fun at his co-inhabitants on this earth', as the photographer Wouter van Heusden observed in the magazine Foto. In the summer of 1957, Scherer won first prize at La Cave for a shot of a drummer in ecstasy. He had submitted this photo to a group exhibition in which Johan van der Keuken, Lucebert, and Julien Coulommier were also taking part. The photos of the dancing girl and the drummer in ecstasy were also featured in 24 uur Amsterdam. Both photos typify what was meant by film-like photography, i.e. images filled with movement and dynamic. The third and final time that Scherer set up his own exhibition was again at La Cave in February 1958 - the thirty-third photography exhibition to be held at the restaurant. Under the title of Scherer en Inslag, five themes were shown in 1958: the mining disaster at Marcinelle, Jean Cocteau, Jayne Mansfield in the Netherlands, blind children at Artis (the Amsterdam zoo), and animals.

In 1951, the Contact publishing house began releasing dozens of pocket photobooks by Cas Oorthuys. The themes of these small-sized books were related to topographic topics or travel destinations (Dit is Londen, 'This is London'; Dit is Rome, 'This is Rome'). They were successful editions. It was not until several years later that the Bruna publishing company initiated a counteroffensive of its own with the renowned pocket book series the Zwarte Beertjes ('The Little Black Bears'). The first 'photo' pocket book in the series was published in 1957, entitled Mensen in Montmartre ('People in Montmartre', no. 33), featuring photos by Max Koot. In the early 1960s, Scherer published three works in the same series, one appearing shortly after the other. They were co-productions in the sense that Scherer was expressly named as being a co-compiler on the cover or the French title page. His first book was Hier is New York ('Here is New York', 1960), followed by Hier is Nederland ('Here is the Netherlands', 1960) and Filmfestival (1961) about Cannes. The quadrilingual Hier is Nederland = Voici Nederland = Here is Nederland = Hier ist Nederland is most reserved and austere in nature. Nevertheless, here one encounters an original and inventive visual editing that occasionally leads to hilarious combinations: a car in the canal next to a ship on the beach, or a crowded beach pavilion in Scheveningen appearing next to docile sheep stalled out in innumerable pens at Den Burg on the Dutch island of Texel.

Featuring numerous photos taken with back, rake, and atmospheric lighting, Hier is New York matches up to 24 uur Amsterdam. Despite the small format of the Zwarte Beertje series, the creative visual editing and unifying texts were successful in allowing the reader to partake in the life of people living in a major metropolitan city. The book Rotterdam of the same series, with photos by Henk Jonker, was released at about the same time as Hier is New York. By contrast, it was much more of a book about a city with people rather than a book about people in a city. Jonker keeps his distance, while Scherer follows people's every move.

In recent years, colour photography of the 1950s has begun to resurface. Scherer also played a major role in this area. His colour archive consists of 6x6 slides and 35 mm slides. There are no colour negatives. The archive's emphasis lies primarily on shots of countries, cities, and other locations. Dates are generally lacking. The 6x6 slide archive includes 55,000 image supports. By the early 1960s, Scherer is certain to have already accumulated an extensive archive of colour slides. This was the subject of an article in the magazine Focus in 1963. As the piece related, the interested client was able to pick out a suitable image while sitting in a comfortable reception room furnished with a large sofa, electrically operated blinds, large light boxes, a projection wall, and telephones in a soft-green colour. Scherer therefore possessed an 'image bank' avant la lettre, set up as an independent archive that was separate from his commissioned work. The magnitude of the colour archive indicates that, at the time of the 1936 article in Focus, Scherer had already been working on this archive for quite some time. This makes him one of the early suppliers for colour images in the Netherlands. Preceding Scherer, however, was Sem Presser, who had access to his own collection of stock photography that featured similar themes. Presser's earliest 6x6 slide series date from circa 1958. Prior to this time, there are no reportages to be found in Scherer's archive. His colour photography was initially shot for the Dutch weeklies or for corporate printed matter.

It was not until the second half of the 1960s that the Bruna publishing company came to understand the viability of producing a series of pocket books on different countries, entitled De wereld in kleur ('The World in Colour') and featuring colour photographic work by Kees Scherer. The idea of a series of topographic books received a follow-up in the mid-1970s, this time with a series on the eleven Dutch provinces from the Elsevier publishing house, entitled Kijk op Nederland ('View of the Netherlands'). Scherer supported the majority of the images for this series, with approximately 300 to 400 illustrations per volume. The photography was tourist-related and topographic in nature. All of the shots were taken under optimum weather conditions, produced with an exemplary photographic technique. For the volume Nederland leven met het water ('Netherlands Living with the Water'), Scherer photographed the lighthouse of Ijmuiden from fifteen different vantage points under a variety of light conditions. Scherer's portrayal of the Netherlands was remarkably void of people, certainly by his standards, as this would have detracted from the timeless character of his photos. Creating such a romantic vision of the Netherlands is certain to have been an enormously time-consuming enterprise. Scherer archived each image separately following a preliminary selection, as opposed to preserving them in the original strip format. It would be easy to disparage this element of Schering's oeuvre as mere calendar photography (they were indeed as well intended for use in calendars). Such a characterisation, however, overlooks a historical cognizance. Scherer's merit lies in the fact that his 'fixed' view of the Netherlands has since either changed or disappeared altogether. Hence, it no longer exists.

The complete encyclopaedic series was brought out on the market from 1976 to 1978. The books are certain to have been printed in substantial numbers from the start, with many reprints as well. The last volume of the series bore the title Nederland leven met het water (1978). The contact prints for a few of Scherer's images found in this specific book have been preserved. Here one can observe the extent to which his carefully conceived compositions were cut to meet layout requirements. With this particular series, Scherer's often quoted description of designers as 'vuile fotomoordenaars' ('grubby photo butchers') was confirmed once again.

Initially, Scherer worked exclusively with Rolleiflex cameras. In 1963, he began expanding his equipment with a Hasselblad camera, together with a Sonnar f4 150 mm and a 250 mm lens. For black-and-white photography, he used Ilford FP3 film (125 ASA) or the faster HP3 film (400 ASA). He developed his black-and-white film in Microphen. For his colour photography, Scherer turned to Kodak Ektachrome E film and later Ektachrome X film (64 ASA). He did not use the Ektachrome EP Professional film because it actually had to be sent in and developed by Kodak and for this Scherer had no patience. By as late as 1963, Scherer still claimed he had no desire to work with 35 mm photography: 'Six by six is the limit; I couldn't care less about grain as an expression of art. I see it more as an expression of people who have no understanding of their profession, only to be tolerated when it's imperative.' In the end, Scherer started taking 35 mm photos with cameras such as the Nikkormat. His (Ektachrome) 35 mm slide archive eventually grew to 64,000 shots.

Thematically, Scherer's black-and-white photography is comparable to that of other documentary photographers of the post-war period. Through his interest in people on the street and the manner in which he approached them, however, he was able to distinguish himself. Scherer excelled with his poetic style and his unorthodox use of light: morning and evening light, raking light, and backlighting. In recent years, a renewed appreciation for Scherer's work has emerged, with his photos turning up in various museum collections. He can rightfully be described as a minor master of light. During the second half of the 1950s, travel photography started to form an increasingly larger part of his oeuvre, with numerous reportages abroad made in exotic locations, including the Galapagos and Fiji Islands, Ecuador, and Japan. With his colour photography, Scherer distanced himself from the approach he had taken in the past, i.e. approaching people from close up and capturing light so skilfully in tonal greys. In such cases, his photography is largely related to the Netherlands and its landscape. This late work seems almost diametrically opposed to his earlier 'urban' black-and-white photography.

...

Adriaan Elligens [source: https--depthoffield.universiteitleiden.nl/2641f03en]