Bart Vegter (1940-2011) was self-taught and derived his primary inspiration from the methods of filmmakers such as Frans Zwartjes and Paul de Mol, and experimental cinema from the 1970s and 1980s. Before starting to shoot abstract films at age forty, Bart Vegter graduated from the Eindhoven University of Technology and worked at the laboratories of Shell and Philips. His oeuvre may be modest in size, but it excels in its eye for detail and craftsmanship. During the early years, he worked with traditional animation techniques. However, his last few films such as Nacht-Licht [Night Light], Space-Modulation and Forest-Views display a more idiosyncratic style attributable to the software he wrote.

Paul de Nooijer (* 1943) has been making films for 40 years now – an incredible achievement in a field not exactly showered by public interest and funding. His reputation is solidly based on works displaying mostly ‘illusionism’ – the interdependency of film and photography. Since son Menno (*1967) joined in this ‘family business of art’ as a full-fledged partner in 1989, the films became faster and more colourful. But more importantly, the focus of their artistic efforts slightly shifted from just photography and film to a combination with theatre and performance.

The basic idea is that it is impossible to fix film. Film is something, which is always in a state of flux...The images, ‘real’ in the beginning, gradually disintegrate and the gelatine layer, where the chemicals are embedded, dissolves. All that’s left in the end is the ‘raging of the elements’. -Jürgen Reble