Background

Since Monday August 15th 1977 the youngest son of Sjef Göertz and Thea Koppen, since July 2001 the husband of Desiree and since March 10th 2009 the father of Ference.
Since May 2008 coming out as an artist.

Background

There is no basis in formal education for my photography. However, mid 2007 I signed up for a course at RICK, the regional educational institute for culture and art-education in my home-town, Weert (Netherlands).
Just as with many other auto-didactic photographers I’ve experimented a lot with different cameras and different photographic and artistic techniques throughout the years.
I’m afraid I won’t be giving that up anytime soon….

My style

I try to create artwork by capturing the shadow-reality, which is visible everywhere as soon as you want to see it.
In that way the viewer is urged to pay better attention, to see those things we often forget or even refuse to pay attention to.
My work is what it is, and exists simply because it needed to be produced.

My style often shows a typical colouring, with a dark high contrast composition, and features common scenes, everyday objects, inspired by numerous other artists and artistic and cultural movements such as surrealism, minimalism and dadaïsm.
At the end of 2010 I was diagnosed with a severe case of cataracts and after the surgery I was able to have a look at my previous work, with new eyes so to speak.
My newer work has a less hard contrast and is more subtle compared to older work.

For more information about me and my way of working, have look here.