Frans Stoppelman

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Frans Stoppelman (born January 9, 1921 in Amsterdam , Netherlands ; † October 23, 2007 in Mexico City , Mexico ) was a Dutch press photographer who established himself in Latin America after the Second World War . His sense of bizarre situations earned him international recognition.

Life

Frans Stoppelman, also known as Francis Stopelman, was born in Amsterdam on January 9, 1921. His father was a textile dealer. He bought his first camera, a Kodak Brownie, with discounted soap powder. After his mother's death and an argument with his stepmother, he ran away from home. He dropped out of school and did odd jobs.

During the Second World War he had to flee the Netherlands as a Jew . After an adventurous journey, he arrived in Switzerland on April 13, 1942 . He was interned in the Les Verrières labor camp. There he made his first photo report, which is now in the possession of the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam. He was allowed to take up training at a photography academy in Lausanne . After the war he initially stayed in Switzerland as a press photographer.

In 1949 he went to Chile . For many years he photographed children in swimming pools. His sense of bizarre situations gave him an international breakthrough. Life magazine published a photo showing people huddling around the first escalator installed in the capital, Santiago .

Numerous commissions brought him to Europe at times, so that he stayed in Amsterdam again at the end of the 1950s. He photographed windmills, traditional costumes and sailing regattas. He turned down a call to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague . He'd rather go back to the archives he'd left in Chile.

In the 1960s he settled in the Caribbean , where he hiked, wrote a few books and otherwise lived right through the day. In 1968 he traveled to Mexico for the Olympic Games . He stayed there until the end of his life.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Brusse: A camera van de spaarzegels. In: de Volkskrant. November 24, 2007, accessed October 18, 2014 (Dutch).
  2. ^ Frans Stoppelman (86) maand geleden overleden. In: photoq.nl. June 11, 2008, accessed October 18, 2014 (Dutch).
  3. ^ New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors. Author names starting with Sto - Str.authorandbookinfo.com, accessed October 19, 2014 .
  4. ^ All Stories, Memories & Histories results for Stoppelman. ancestry.co.au, accessed October 18, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Stoppelman, Frans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Francis Stopelman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch press photographer
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Amsterdam
DATE OF DEATH October 23, 2007
Place of death Mexico city