Artist Spotlight: Maarten Groen

Posted by Ashley Kelemen on

We first discovered Maarten Groen on Instagram and quickly became huge fans of his stunning work. Shooting almost exclusively CineStill Film, he recently self published a book of images shot on our film!

For this spotlight, we simply asked Maarten to talk about shooting impactful still photographs alongside his work as a film director. Thank you Maarten for supporting CineStill and for being such a beautiful part of our film community!

Hi, I’m Maarten Groen and I’m an analog addict. 

In my work as director/photographer, I greatly prefer to capture using analog over digital. Over the years I’ve tried many different cameras and different films. Two factors are constant in my work: a Nikon F3 (I’m now on my 6th body) and Cinestill film.
Because of my inflated hobby I knew I had to try Cinestill film. The promise of a glorious cinematic look hooked me right in. It took me a while to get used to the stock. But the halation and the tungsten-film look immediately intrigued me. A couple of rolls later I became an addict. With my ever-growing love for Cinestill film also grew my collection of filters. I try to capture my ideas as close to the final image as possible, minimizing the need for digital effects. Whether that means using an 85 correction filter for shooting in daylight (emphasising the halation even more), or using coloured filters for black and white film.
Nowadays, almost all of my work (commercial and non-commercial) is shot on Cinestill 800T.  It just matches my idea of what photography should look like. I like to precisely plan my shots. I see atmosphere as one of the most powerful factors in storytelling. I love the notion of showing a moment that’s about to happen. Even though I try to control as much in my work as possible, shooting analog also provides an element of natural chaos. An uncontrollable quality that always dazzles me. 
If only I could also shoot Cinestill in my motion film work…
I’m honoured that my images are a part of this analog community. I love to share ideas, tips and tricks.  Feel free to ask me questions about my photography (or book me for a job ;-). A selection of my shots can be found on my Instagram account.

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  • Beautiful!!!

    KenTai on

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