Bio
Jaap Buitendijk grew up in Holland. He travelled extensively as a teenager and moved to Britain in 1990. It was during his travels that he first picked up a camera and began to grow his passion for photography. He studied documentary photography at Newport School of Art and here he explored the apparent contradiction of using documentary skills to record an artificial reality; that of films. He was awarded a first class honours degree and the Fuji Professional Award for Film Stills, in 1996.
Since then Jaap has established himself as a film stills photographer with a reputation for looking beyond the obvious with the unusual ability to shoot images not only on film sets but also to create 'key art' in dedicated photo studios. He has become a favourite with some of the greatest film directors of our time: Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Ridley Scott and Steve McQueen, among others. He is equally at home on sets of major productions such as Ready Player One, Fantastic Beasts, Bridge of Spies, World War Z, Harry Potter and Gladiator, as well as smaller projects such as 12 Years a Slave, The Big Short and The Constant Gardener. His work shows a versatility and commitment to the still photography of cinema as well as the fascinating opportunity to capture the mechanics of film making itself.
Jaap is a member of The Society of Motion Picture Still Photographers with whom he has collaborated on three exhibitions in Los Angeles.