Maurice Scheltens & Liesbeth Abbenes

Scheltens & Abbenes are the sum total of the unique talent of a still-life photographer and the creative craftsmanship of an artist/stylist. Technical perfection added to individual handicraft, strong pictorial clarity in addition to tailor-made styling. Combining their distinct but partly overlapping fields of expertise, Scheltens & Abbenes create commissioned photographs for cultural institutions and large companies (Vitra, Nike, Hermes, Viktor & Rolf) and editorials for magazines (Fantastic Man, Wallpaper, Another Magazine).

Essential to their work is the process in the studio where they construct their settings. A laborious process, in which Scheltens & Abbenes continuously move things around, painstakingly join pieces together and adjust little details. Scheltens & Abbenes take absolute liberty with their objects. Instead of presenting the 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. By the same logic, they will also continue their individual practices, Maurice Scheltens as a still-life photographer, Liesbeth Abbenes as an artist making wall tapestries.