Duco de Vries

Duco de Vries is a portrait and fine art photographer, teacher, curator, and organizer of the Fotofestival West-Friesland. In his work as a portrait photographer, he seeks genuine connection: the moment when someone allows themselves to be seen. His portraits move between observation and encounter.

He trained as a painting and art history teacher at the Amsterdam University of the Arts and during a period in New York transitioned to photography. Back in the Netherlands, he discovered at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy his lasting fascination with portraiture. Five books have been published on his portrait photography, the most recent, De Ontmoeting (2022), marking his thirty-year career.

In his autonomous art photography, life by the water forms a recurring theme. In the long-running series Lakeside Stories, Duco explores memories of growing up on the dike—a place that once offered calm, perspective, and order. The dike and the water were stable and familiar, a natural anchor in everyday life. Due to climate change and rising sea levels, dikes have regained urgency and must now be strengthened and raised. This new reality adds tension to life below sea level and to his personal memories—a circumstance he consciously uses as a source for new visual work.