Helena van der Kraan (1940) mostly photographs friends and acquaintances and everyday objects in and around her house. She was originally trained as a painter and printmaker. In 1968 she fled her native Czechoslovakia for the Netherlands, where she was accepted on the post-graduate course at Ateliers ’63 in Haarlem. In 1970 she bought her first camera, with which she documented the performances of her husband, the artist Axel van de Kraan. In the years since she has made photography her principle medium. Van der Kraan’s photographs emphasise form, line and pattern, belying her background as a printmaker.
Helena van der Kraan
Praag 1940 - Rotterdam 2020
