Photo Archive
Lily Eversdijk Smulders is best known for her portrait drawings, but when her photographic work was digitized between the years 2010 and 2015 we were pleasantly surprised. Not only are her photographs historically interesting, but artistically as well. Besides numerous color slides of landscapes, monuments and individuals she had encountered during her travels, they include beautiful black and white photographs from i.a. India, Nepal, Iran, Afghanistan, the Middle East, Rwanda, Tanzania and Peru. These photographs have lost nothing of their power and they demonstrate Lily’s eye for detail and her fascination with her fellow man.
Although Lily always portrayed live models, she sometimes photographed these models as well in order to work out details of their hairstyle and clothing later. Thus we encountered people in the photo archive, whose faces were already familiar from their portrait drawings.
Lily made use of cameras with a lens at the top: Rolleicord DRP 1157010 DRGM, Rolleicord DBP 1310743 DBGM (brand Rollei F & H, Franke & Heidecke, Braunschweig) and Flexaret-me-opta (made in Czechoslovakia). Photographs taken with these cameras show a lower angle.
A selection of her photographs is shown herewith. In the coming years we plan to pay further attention to Lily’s photographic work in exhibitions and publications.
