A sublime update of work from photography duo Scheltens & Abbenes

Date
3 May 2016

Scheltens & Abbenes’ work is a slick mix of still life photography and abstract compositions. The photography duo, made up of Maurice Scheltens and Liesbeth Abbenes, has been busy working on fashion and editorial campaigns for various big brands and magazines. Its work still exudes the same sophistication and precision since the last time we featured them for their pocket-themed shoot for The Gentlewoman in 2014.

In one of its most recent projects, Scheltens & Abbenes worked with Paco Rabanne for its 2016 campaign. The series sees them subtly bring to life Julien Dossena’s collection by elegantly draping the clothes in highly stylised environments. The duo’s editorial shoot for Fantastic Man titled, In Navy, is in a similar vein for its sleekness but saw Maurice and Liesbeth incorporate another element into the shoot. “Although we never use models in our compositions this time we used hands with speckless white gloves as ‘still objects’,” Scheltens & Abennes says. “We looked at the ritual of folding a flag – instead of the flag, different garments are carefully folded.”

With process at the core of its work, there’s a real attention to detail in all of Scheltens & Abbenes projects including the series of food-based collages using found images from old cookery books for Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant and the campaign shots for Italian tile brand Mutina made by mixing 2D and 3D elements to create beautifully tessellated compositions.

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Scheltens & Abbenes: Fantastic Man

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Scheltens & Abbenes: Fantastic Man

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Scheltens & Abbenes: Mutina

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Scheltens & Abbenes: Paco Rabanne

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Scheltens & Abbenes: Paco Rabanne

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Scheltens & Abbenes: Volkskrant magazine

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Scheltens & Abbenes: Volkskrant magazine

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About the Author

Rebecca Fulleylove

Rebecca Fulleylove is a freelance writer and editor specialising in art, design and culture. She is also senior writer at Creative Review, having previously worked at Elephant, Google Arts & Culture, and It’s Nice That.

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