An Extraordinary Ordinary Portrait Studio in Alkmaar: The Family Photography of the Vlaanderen Sisters (1938-1972)

The Vlaanderen sisters ran a photographic portrait studio from the 1930s until 1972, as the third and last generation of an Alkmaar family business. Tonny (1901-1993) was the photographer and her sister Sophie (1905- 1995) worked as assistant. Both lived practically their entire lives right above their studio on the Oude Gracht in Alkmaar. In contrast to the studio’s conventionality, expressed in the inconspicuous style of the portraits that it produced, stands the eccentricity of its owners. This essay explores how the sisters navigated this paradox by investigating how their own social personas – which they actively tried to shape through their public appearances in the street as well in the media – related to their photographic craftswomanship, staging and processing their clients’ portraits in the studio and in the dark room. And what can we learn about the operation of a Dutch photo studio during the post-war era along the way?