Icon Photographer Gijsbert Hanekroot

Dutch photographer Gijsbert Hanekroot began his career in 1969 and spent the ’70s working for Oor (the first Dutch music magazine), and other publications. His career as a photojournalist perfectly aligned with the explosion of the rock scene, and he documented this golden age of music—photographing many of the era’s greatest icons.

Gijsbert captured images that revealed the human being behind the musician—expressing deeper truths about his subjects in portraits that are natural and intimate, relaxed and sincere. He retired from music photography in 1983 and became an entrepreneur—owning a publishing house and a webshop for computers and digital cameras.

Twenty years later, he began to digitize his archives. This led to the publication of Abba…Zappa: Seventies Rock Photography (2008)—uniquely designed to recall a stack of photos—and exhibitions in Paris, London, Moscow, Tokyo and Amsterdam. While working on his book and exhibitions, Gijsbert felt a desire to return to photography. He began again by traveling and shooting his way through India, China, Eastern Europe and the USA.