About
Biography
Photographer Loek Buter is a documentary photographer. The focus in his work is on the relationship between man and nature in the Dutch landscape. His photos have been published by National Geographic Magazine, De Volkskrant, NRC, Outside Magazine (USA), GEO Magazine (DE), Neue Zürcher Zeitung (ZW), De Standaard (BE) and China Newsweek, among others. He lives with his wife and three daughters on a small farm in Heerhugowaard in North Holland. He studied at the Amsterdam Photo Academy. His photo series were exhibited in the Kunsthal in Rotterdam and the Fotomuseum The Hague, among others. He received a Silver Camera and a Lens Culture Award for the photo story 'A bear in the polder'.
Clients
Media;
National Geographic Magazine, De Volkskrant, Trouw, NRC, Stern Magazine (DE), Outside Magazine (USA), GEO Magazine (DE), Musee Magazine (USA), Publico (Portugal), Neue Zürcher Zeitung (ZW), De Standaard (BE), Het Parool, Seasons Magazine, China Newsweek.
Commercial;
Triodos Bank, Provincie Noord-Holland, Singel Uitgeverijen, MOOI Noord-Holland, Groen Ontwikkel Fonds Brabant, National Vacaturebank, Driessen.
Critics acclaim
Joke de Wolf, art criticus in Trouw
Loek Buter photographs 'his' North Holland' in the tradition of Mondriaan. (....) Photos painted with green, blue and patches of white. (…) all about shapes, lines and colors without a specific moment or place. Mondriaan, the artist who became famous with rectangles in primary colors, also took his first inspiration from the meadows around Amsterdam. Buter has no brush, no ruler, it's all about the frame. (…) An insignificant shed door, a rectangle and a square, outlined in white in a forest of diagonals. The photographer saw that. And so do we now.
Arno Hajtema, reporter de Volkskrant about ‘Sons of the Meadowlands’
Buter bekijkt het boerenleven met een frisse blik. Op een van zijn foto’s zien we een stal met door mest en de tand des tijds uitgebeten deuren die hij door zijn kadrering abstraheert tot een compositie van geometrische vlakken, met een hoofdrol voor het grijs van asbest golfplaten boven aan het bouwsel.
Alona Pardo, curator Barbican Art Gallery London about ‘A bear in the lowlands’
Loek Buter’s moving and evocative portrait of former German circus artist Maxy Niedermeyer and her big old lovable Bulgarian brown bear Natascha, reflects on ideas of non-human-centered exceptionalism, the shifting tides of our relationship to nature and other species, nostalgia, care and compassion, alongside the waning of the Victorian spectacle of the circus.
Rendered in saturated color, Buter’s visual narrative spans close-up portraits of Maxy decked out in her performance regalia reliving a not-too-distant past, surreal shots of her out strolling the lowlands of The Netherlands with Natascha on a leash, straight documentary images of Maxy tenderly grooming this giant of nature interspersed with prosaic images of the food Natascha consumed, and her final resting pace and the cramped quarters Niedermeyer occupies in her bid to remain close to this animal with whom she had a life-long relationship of unconditional love. Buter’s arresting portrait of this woman, whose identity is inextricably linked to her love for Natascha, are at once moving, humorous and full of empathy.
Selected publications
2023 | National Geographic Magazine China | Wier van Hier
2023 | National Geographic Magazine China | Hemels Uurwerk
2023 | NPO Radio 1 | Tekentafellandschappen | interview
2023 | De Volkskrant | Tekentafellandschappen | article
2023 | De Volkskrant | Natuurbegraafplaatsen | article
2022 | National Geographic Magazine China | De Vuurtoren rond
2022 | Musee Magazine (USA) | De Vuurtoren rond | article
2022 | Publico (Portugal) | Een beer in de polder | article
2022 | Photographers Companion China | Een beer in de polder
2022 | Volkskrant Magazine | Breeduit Zaaien en Oogsten | article
2022 | De Volkskrant | In de Luwte van de Kersenboomgaard | article
2022 | Geo Magazine | Hüterin des Deichs
2022 | NRC | Een worden met de natuur | article
2022 | China Newsweek | Een beer in de polder
2022 | Trouw | Het land van ooit het land van morgen | article
2022 | Radio 1 | A bear in the lowlands |interview
2022 | De Standaard (BE) | Onontbeerlijk | article
2022 | Mijn dochter de beer | Volkskrant Magazine | article
2022 | A bear in the lowlands | National Geographic Magazine | article
2021 | Radio 1 | Around the lighthouse | interview
2021 | De Volkskrant | Rond de vuurtoren | article
2021 | National Geographic Magazine | Autarkie als Ambacht
2021 | Trouw | Mondriaan in de Polder | Article
2021 | Het Parool | Markermeerdijken |article
2020 | De Volkskrant | Grasmaaiers | article
2020 | Trouw | Dijkreuzen | artikel
2020 | De Volkskrant | IJsbanen | artikel
2019 | Trouw | Scharrelkinderen | artikel
2019 | Kiekie Tabloid | interview
2018 | Geo Magazine (DE) |Vogelkinderen
2017 | NRC | Poezië van het platteland | artikel
2016 | Outside Magazine (USA) |Dutch Kids train to become falconers | interview
2016 | Aint-bad Magazine (USA) |portfolio
2015 |Trouw |Liever vogels dan Facebook |artikel
2015 | Fotoroom (IT) |Young falconers and their birds of prey |interview
2015 | Fisheye le Magazine (FR) | Sons of the Meadowlands | interview
2014 | Radio Noord-Holland |Ode aan het Boerenleven | interview
Exhibitions
2023 | Een beer in de polder | Solo exhibition Kunsthal Rotterdam
2023 | Tekentafellandschappen | Expositie Goeie Grond | Museum Kennemerland Beverwijk
2023 | Tekentafellandschappen | Artfarm Heerhugowaard
2022 | Een beer in de polder | Zilveren Camera Museum Hilversum
2016 | Boeren ‘Avonturen op het land’| Fotomuseum Den Haag
2014 | Vogelkinderen | Landgoed Hoenderdaell Anna Paulowna
2014 | Sons of the Meadowlands | Loaded | Loods 6 Amsterdam
2013 | The Unexposed | De Slang Amsterdam
Awards
2023 | Zilveren Camera| Nominatie Serie Nieuws Regionaal | In de Luwte van de Kersenboomgaard
2022 | Lens Culture | Critics Choice awards | A bear in the lowlands
2022 | Zilveren Camera | 1st Prize category documentary national | A bear in the lowlands
2021 | Zilveren Camera | Shortlist | Watchers, Sleepers & Dreamers
2015 | Unseen Photobook Dummy Award | Sons of the Meadowlands
2014 | Photo Academy Grant | Shortlist for the book Sons of the Meadowlands
2012 | Grid & Blurb Photofestival 2012 | honorable mention | The last free ports of Amsterdam
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