Peter Keetman

Peter Keetman – Photography studies, military service and first practical experiences

Peter Keetman was born on 27th April 1916 in Elberfeld, today part of Wuppertal. As the son of a consul and bank director, he grew up in sheltered circumstances and was able to afford to develop an interest in such an expensive hobby as photography, receiving his first camera as a gift at the age of ten in 1926. From 1935 to 1937, Keetman studied at the Bayerische Staatslehranstalt für Lichtbildwesen, after which he worked as an assistant to the portrait photographer Gertrud Hesse in Duisburg and the industrial photographer Carl Heinz Schmeck in Aachen. During the Second World War, he was sent to serve with the railway pioneers and suffered a serious injury, including the loss of his left leg, which enabled him to return home early in 1944. Immediately after his convalescence, Peter Keetman returned to the Bayerische Staatslehranstalt für Lichtbildwesen, where he was now a member of the master class, and in 1948, under Adolf Lazi, was able to participate in the curation of the exhibition Die Photographie 1948 at the Landesmuseum in Stuttgart.

Rapidly growing national and international fame

Peter Keetman soon developed a progressive understanding of photography and sought new artistic means of expression for the medium. In this context, he participated in the founding of the avant-garde photographers' association fotoform in 1949 alongside the further driving forces of Otto Steinert, Siegfried Lauterwasser, Toni Schneiders and Wolfgang Reisewitz. In particular, the subjective photography initiated and promoted by Otto Steinert, which focused decidedly on artistic expression, inspired Keetman to create numerous remarkable and pioneering works that had a formative influence on the development of artistic photography. In the 1950s, Keetman's photographic works were among the indispensable contributions in all important German-language photo magazines, and international magazines soon became aware of the artist. This period also saw a fruitful collaboration with the graphic artist Nikolai Borg.

Milestone and landmark in the history of modern photography

Peter Keetman's work is exemplary of modern photography in post-war Germany. The artist himself saw photography as a key to the laws and beauties of the world that would otherwise have remained hidden to him. In this way, however, he was able to use his art to probe unimagined depths of aesthetics and understanding. His motifs were drawn from nature, architecture, people and industry, such as the comprehensive series of pictures of the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg which became particularly well known. With wilfully chosen image excerpts and innovative perspectives, the artist succeeded in creating a spectacular photographic documentation of the production of the famous VW Beetle. Peter Keetman received prizes and awards for his art, including the David Octavius Hill Medal in 1981 and the Culture Prize of the German Photographic Society in 1991.

Peter Keetman died on 8th March 2005 in Marquartstein in Bavaria. His elder sister was the composer Gunild Keetman. In 2016, on what would have been his 100th birthday, the art photographer was honoured with a comprehensive retrospective by the Folkwang Museum in Essen and Stiftung F.C. Gundlach.