Pim Westerweel

Photographer / Pim Westerweel (1936)

Pim Westerweel, a photographer born in Bussum, experienced the thrill of his life as a 14-year-old boy.
His father, an avid amateur photographer, gave him permission to play with his 9 × 12 record camera.
Looking at the frosted glass, he experienced the sharp / blurry and distortion of the real image.
With the bellows fully pulled out, you could observe and record the material through a magnifying glass.
There were no photo academies at that time, but there was the “Fotovakschool” in The Hague.
A 2-year written course with 2 weeks a year of practice in The Hague.
After this biennial training, he had to be employed and ended up at the photo reconnaissance squad of the Air Force.
From 1956 to 1960 he worked at the Cinetone film studios in Duivendrecht
Via Bert Haanstra, who worked extensively in Artis with his productions “Zoo” and “Alleman”, he was offered a job as a photographer / film maker at the Amsterdam zoo where he produced 13 films until 1970 and provided the magazine “Artis” with his photos.
In 1970 he decided to photograph people and became a freelancer.
His first assignments consisted of sports reports (skating and football in the time of Cruijff and “Ard & Keesie”) for ao Nieuwe Revu...

Dutch Photography School 1956-1956