Aber das letzte wort hatte immer ein spazierstock (But the last word had always a walkingstick)

Jan van Leeuwen
Holland, born 1932
Aber das letzte wort hatte immer ein spazierstock (But the last word had always a walkingstick)
 Cyanotype, 1992
Collection Museum of Photographic Arts
Gift of the artist
1993.010.003
© Museum of Photographic Arts

When In Time

1932
Jan van Leeuwen born in the Netherlands

1932

World War II begins

1945
World War II ends

1959
Russia launches the first space satellite, Sputnik I

1975
First skateboard

1983

CDs begin to replace records and cassette tapes

1992
van Leeuwen creates Aber das letzte wort hatte immer ein spazierstock (But the last word had always a walkingstick)

Who What Where When Why

Who is the artist?
Jan van Leeuwen

What is the name of the artwork?
Aber das letzte wort hatte immer ein spazierstock (But the last word had always a walkingstick)

What materials were used?
Cyanotype

Where is the artist from?
The Netherlands

When was the artwork made?
1992

Who?

Jan van Leeuwen was born in 1932 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. A salesman, office manager, and buyer for trading companies, his early photos were pictures of the products he represented. When he started to become serious about studying photography, he went to a workshop that focused on self-portraits. Van Leeuwen was very excited about what he had learned and from then on picked self- portraits as his main subject. He also learned about the cyanotype process from a famous Dutch photo-collector.

Why?

Cyanotypes, also known as photograms or sunprints, are photos that are made without a camera. This type of photograph was popular during the first half of the 1800’s and used by photographers for many different things, like recording plants. To create his cyanotype images, van Leeuwen uses a large format camera to take a photograph on film and produce a negative. He exposes the film with light for about 2 minutes. Then, van Leeuwen places the negative on photographic paper in a light box for about 8-10 hours, which creates the final cyanotype.

What shapes do you see in this photo?

How does the color blue make you feel about the photo?

Why do you think the person in the photo is looking away from the camera? Why isn't he using the walking stick?

Glossary Terms

Cyanotype - Also known as Sunprints or photograms. Cyanotypes are made without a camera. Objects are placed on top of a piece of light-sensitive paper and exposed to light. The areas covered by the objects are unexposed and remain light in color, while the areas around the objects are exposed to light and darken in color. Cyanotype refers to images that are produced on specially treated paper that turns a blue (cyan) color.
Negative - An image where the light and dark colors are reversed. Light colors, such as white, appear dark, and dark colors, such as black, appear light. A negative is used to create the final photograph and many prints of the photograph can be made from the one negative.
Self-portrait - A portrait of oneself, made by oneself.