Leendert Blok (1895-1986); Spaarnestad Photo (in The Hague, Netherlands) — Flower (White Background)

[The Hague, Netherlands]: Leendert Blok, [ca. 1920-30]. Black & White Photographic Print. 9.5 x 14.5 cm. (Image Size). Very Good. From a large group of colour and black & white prints and colour transparencies after the photographs of Leendert Blok, c.1920-1930. Leendert Blok (1895-1986) was one of the most important pioneers of colour photography in the Netherlands. He was fascinated by photography from a young age. The child of a family doctor and a pharmacist, he used his parents' pharmacy as a photographic laboratory. As an inventor, he experimented with different techniques and chemical processes. Although Blok's floral still lifes have an extraordinary aesthetic and artistic quality, they were not intended to please. He took the photographs for catalogues of flower growers and exporters in the bulb region, with the aim of capturing his subjects as accurately as possible. Initially, he used the only commercially viable colour process available at the time: the French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière's autochrome, the predecessor of slide film, in which a thin layer of red-orange, green and blue-purple coloured starch granules was cast onto a sheet of glass. In the late 1920s, when black-and- white photography was still the norm, he developed his own colour method, Spectracolor. To do this, he combined three separate positives (magenta, cyan and yellow) into a single colour image. This image was much sharper and clearer than the grainy and soft-toned autochrome. Blok further perfected his compositions on the producers' instructions. When necessary, he lent a helping hand to nature: he used 'perfect' parts of various flowers to create a convincing new flower, held together with needles and glue, or optimised with painted petals. Blok's oeuvre, of which two-thirds is lost and in the possession of Spaarnestad Photo in The Hague, is unique. Through his functional approach to the unique and distinctive qualities of flowers, he has managed to capture their beauty in its purest form. His oeuvre has received great international acclaim and has a long tradition of depicting flowers, from the still lifes of the 17th century to the world-famous detailed photographs of German photographer Karl Blossfeldt. .