Scheltens & Abbenes Netherlands, 1972 / 1970

Technical perfection added to individual handicraft, strong pictorial clarity in addition to tailor-made settings. They experiment with converting spatial dimensions into flat surfaces and explore photography’s potential for creating illusion. Essential to their work is their laboratory like studio where they construct their settings with an attitude of conceptualisation and solution-led thinking, regardless of whether they are editing or tackling commissioned or independent artistic work. 
 
Instead of presenting objects as plain sellable products, they often manipulate and utilize them as building blocks for new compositions. The autonomous artistic quality of the photograph always has to prevail. Scheltens & Abbenes deliberately choose to operate both in the field of applied and autonomous art and use them as breeding ground for one another. This approach resulted in showing their projects in cultural institutions such as Galliera Musee de la Mode Paris, Foam Amsterdam, Huis Marseille Amsterdam, The Kunsthal in Rotterdam and The Art Institute of Chicago.

Scheltens & Abbenes create commissioned photographs for fashion and design companies such as Paco Rabanne, Maison Martin Margiela, COS, Hermes, Scholten & Baijings, Arper, Muller van Severen, Arita, Mutina and editorials for magazines such as Fantastic Man, The Gentlewomen, Double, Pin-Up magazine, MacGuffin, The Plant and New York Times Magazine. Scheltens & Abbenes won a ICP Infinity Award in New York. They live and work in the Netherlands.