Gerard Reve with a wineglass and a skull near a statue of the Virgin Mary, Vincent Samuel Mentzel, 1969

gelatin silver print, h 303mm × w 238mm More details
© Vincent Samuel Mentzel

Photography played an important role in the merging of art and popular culture in the 1960s. The famous Dutch writer Gerard Reve was a clever poseur who consciously used the medium to fashion his image as a homo-sexual and a Catholic convert. Under the heading ‘the writer has a shop’ he repeatedly had himself portrayed with objects that refer to his controversial reputation.