Born to a clog maker in the village of Lieshout in Brabant, Martien Coppens became captivated by photography during his high school years. After graduating, he worked in the clog making industry for a few years before deepening his photographic knowledge through the magazine Focus. Through connections with editor-in-chief Adriaan Boer, young Coppens was encouraged to turn his passion into his profession and pursue an education at the Bayerische Staatslehranstalt für Lichtbildwesen in Munich (1930-1931). He summed up his experience there: “They wanted to capture people in a natural way. Photography was practiced in its essence, exactly as it was, sharp and accurate, but in a perfect technique.” (Business Photography, October 1933) This would become a guiding principle for his entire body of work.
After a brief stint with Kees Helder in Middleburg, Martien Coppens opened his own studio in Eindhoven in early 1932. In 1937, he made a name for himself with his first self-published book, Around the Peel. His romantic and sculptural approach to portraiture was further developed during the war years in books about medieval religious art: The Church Benches of Oirschot (1941) and Thoughts in Stone (1942).
Following his liberation, Coppens transformed in both word and image into a tireless champion of photography as an artistic product, personal means of expression, and object of beauty. This is evident in his works such as De mensch in de fotografie (1946), Fotokunst? (1947), and Mens en camera (1950), as well as over sixty post-war photo books. He combined his involvement in local photographic professional organizations with intensive international contacts. These collaborations resulted in the exhibition Vakfotografie 1950, curated by Coppens for the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum. Shortly after, he met German photographer Otto Steinert, who advocated for a form of ‘subjective photography’ that was closely aligned with Coppens’ own beliefs. An important example of this was Monsters van de Peel, which was released in 1958 by printing and publishing company Lecturis in Eindhoven as a corporate gift.
www.ftn-books.com has now the van Abbemuseum poster for the Coppens exhibition available.
