The Framer

These past weeks I made a filmed advertisement for the long history of an extraordinary framing company that will sadly close its doors on the first of June, this year. The owner will retire and he asked me to film this monument to craftsmanship.

In the early nineties besides my work as an architect, I would paint 'artist impressions' in watercolour. One fine day I visited a framer that was recommended to me by one of my clients.
With a huge green art folder under my arm I entered the old building in Maassluis. On my painting I had marked with pencil lines where the passe-partout should be. I explained what colours I had in mind. Halfway through my explanation however I noticed that Ron was observing me with a smile and that he had stopped listening to me.
He took the painting from me and I followed him up the narrow stairs to the second floor. He mounted the painting on aluminum and then simply cut off large pieces on all sides. The pencil lines were in the bin together with a chunk of sky. With a huge automatic machine cutter that gave the impression that it could cut cookie shapes out of the hulls of the ships in the harbour in front of the building, he cut a three-layer passe-partout in unprecedented colours. He then placed an expressive frame around it. The 'artist impression' was framed by an artist.
I immediately realized that I was going to work with a visionary, a creative collaboration that lasts and grows to this very day. 

The building will no doubt find a new future. I tried my best to capture and save the wonderful present with this film: