Arbeit macht frei (Labor liberates)

Jan van Leeuwen was born in 1932 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. A salesman, office manager, and buyer for trading companies, his early photographs were images of the products he represented. According to his curriculum vitae from March 1992, van Leeuwen stated that from 1976 through 1985 he took “approximately 3,000 photographs of cat-owners collecting their cat’s rewards during shows”. From 1987 through 1990, he engaged himself in a black and white period, winning first prize in two photo contests. His work was exhibited in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, and the Prints-Cabinet of the State University in Leiden, Holland. In 1986, he began to seriously study photography and attended a workshop devoted to self-portraits. In an interview for Foto, he asks, “Will I be able to make visible the things that reflect in my self-portraits?  You don’t make a drawing or a painted portrait, it is somebody, a real person.” The workshop greatly impacted his photography and from that point forward the self-portrait became his main subject.  A well-known Dutch photo-collector introduced van Leeuwen to the cyanotype process.

Jan van Leeuwen experimented with the cyanotype technique.  In an interview for Foto, Van Leeuwen states, “The technique works wonderfully.  Movements within those two minutes result in beautiful blurred images.  In the early days of photography, a model’s head was tightened in a clip.  I don’t like that.  Some movements make the exposure more exciting and lively.  You live in the situation.”

Arbeit macht frei (Labor liberates) is the second work in van Leeuwen’s ten-piece barb-wire series. In the series, the shadowy self-portraits evoke a variety of emotions including isolation and despair. The lack of a range of color except for the shades of blue from the cyanotype process and the white paper emphasize the composition of the images as well as the emotional qualities of the work.

Discussion Questions

(For Grades 4-6)

What is going on in this work?

What do you think the photographer is trying to convey in this image?

Why do you think he decided to use this particular technique instead of another?


(For Grades 9-12)

What is going on in this image?

How is it different from the rest of the images in the series?

What do you think the photographer is trying to convey in this work?

Bibliography

This list of resources is available for use at the Dubois Library at the Museum of Photographic Arts. The Library is open by appointment to MOPA Members, educators and researchers, and its collections are available for on-site use only. Contact the Library at 619-238-7559x216 or library@mopa.org.

Neusüss, Floris Michael, Thomas F. Barrow, and Charles Hagen. 1994. Experimental Vision: the evolution of the photogram since 1919. Niwot, Colo: Roberts Rinehart Publishers in association with the Denver Art Museum.

Van Leeuwen, Jan. Archival Materials. Vertical Files. Museum of Photographic Arts, Edmund L. and Nancy K. Dubois Library, San Diego, CA.