Energy of the Moment

“Making friends everywhere and seeing life as a party, that’s what it’s all about.”
Beer

As a boy he already took pictures, but Duco de Vries started his career as a painter. He followed the art history and painting teacher training at the Amsterdam School of the Arts. In the fourth year of his studies, he was awarded a scholarship to study at the State University of New York. The experiences in New York inspired him to take photography seriously. Returning to the Netherlands, he completed the Amsterdam School of the Arts. He then started studying Photography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam.

As a freelance photographer he made very penetrating portrait photos for various magazines and advertising agencies, always trying to capture the energy of the moment between him and the portrayed. In addition to his regular assignments, Duco de Vries worked for thirteen years on his own project: photographing the Rogues motorcycle club — funerals, weddings, relatives, choppers, parties, trips —, thus entering a world so closed to many. A lifestyle well described by Beer, one of the Rogues’ original members: “For us, it’s about brotherhood and honesty, not how much you own or how you look.” He told De Groene Amsterdammer. “We judge you on your behavior only. A two percent makes many trips and thus celebrates freedom. Making friends everywhere and seeing life as a party, that’s what it’s all about.”

In 2007, the project became a photo book, Bikers in Holland — Inmerc Publishers. Duco also published Casper Faassen paintings, portrayed by Duco de Vries — Van Spijk Publishers, 2008 —, a six months long photo-documentary of the painter Casper Faassen, and Empowered Women — Eve&Lilith Publishers, 2009 — where he shows various types of women in the strength of their lives for better and for worse.

Duco has been teaching at the Photo Academy in Amsterdam since 1997.

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