Kees Molkenboer
photographer
Kees Molkenboer (1907–1987) was a Dutch photojournalist and photographer based in Rotterdam. He began his career in the 1930s, initially developing his technical skills as a member of the amateur photography club 'De Maasstad'. In 1936, he opened his own studio, International Photo Press, on Mauritsweg. Molkenboer became an iconic chronicler of post-war Rotterdam, capturing the city's reconstruction and daily life for newspapers and magazines. His work is characterized by its documentation of industrial scenes, sports events (particularly football), and social history. His extensive archive is preserved at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam.[1,2,3,4,5]
- post-war reconstruction
- Rotterdam cityscapes
- sports photography
- industrial photography
Kees Molkenboer: Rotterdam Photographer
A sourced account of Kees Molkenboer’s Rotterdam career and his contribution to a 1948 anniversary publication.
The photographer is identified by the RKDartists authority record as Kees Molkenboer, with the name variant Cees M.L. Molkenboer: a Dutch photographer born in Rotterdam in 1907 and deceased there in 1987. The record describes him as self-taught, active in Rotterdam from 1936 to 1987, and a teacher at the School voor Fotografie en Fotonica in The Hague from 1958 to 1968. It lists documentary photography, portrait photography, and photojournalism among his fields.
Those facts situate Molkenboer as a working photographer whose practice crossed press, documentary, portrait, and educational contexts. The Nederlands Fotomuseum provides independent collection evidence: it identifies its 1952 photograph Polsstokhoogspringer, Rotterdam as by Kees Molkenboer (1907–1987). Together, the authority record and the museum collection page establish both the biographical identity and the continuing presence of his work in a photographic collection.
A 1948 anniversary publication
A 1948 publication, 50 years Berkel 1898–1948, credits Molkenboer alongside A. Glavimans. An opened bibliographic listing describes it as a first edition published in Rotterdam by Van Waesberge, Hoogewerff & Richards, with 192 pages and a hardcover binding. The same listing identifies it as an anniversary volume for Maatschappij Van Berkel’s Patent NV and describes photographs of staff, equipment, and the everyday use of scales and slicing machines.
That documented publication is a concrete example of Molkenboer’s commissioned and industrial subject matter. It should not, however, be used to make unverified claims about the visual sequence of a particular copy. The available evidence supports a more modest conclusion: Molkenboer’s recorded documentary and photojournalistic practice included a collaborative anniversary volume made for a manufacturing company, as well as photographs of Rotterdam public life represented in a museum collection.
Sources
Books
Works by Kees Molkenboer
- Rotterdam 1945-1953