Piet-Hein Out - Circus Photographer. Photo courtesy of Helene Wiesenhaan.
Piet-Hein Out – Circus Photographer. Photo by Helene Wiesenhaan.
Piet-Hein Out and Oleg Popov. Essen (NRW), Winter 2015. Photo by Dmitry Shukin.
Piet-Hein Out and Oleg Popov. Essen (NRW), Winter 2015. Photo by Dmitry Shukin.
Piet-Hein Out at the opening of a circus exhibition with items from his collection - Zandvoort 2017
Piet-Hein Out at the opening of a circus exhibition with items from his collection – Zandvoort 2017.

Piet-Hein Out is considered to be one of Europe’s best and most skillful circus photographers. As a youngster he started taking circus pictures at the mere age of 12. When he is 15 years young he sells his first circus photographs, the start of a career that lasts till this day. In 2018 he is celebrated 25 years of taking circus pictures.

“Circus photography isn’t just about capturing the right moment. Its mainly about showing an entire act or trick to any person who will see your picture in a clear and yet highly esthetic way.”

Piet-Hein Out

With a grandfather who had a keen interest in photography and even his own dark room to develop negatives and make develop prints it isn’t too hard to imagine what will happen when Out discovers an old Praktica Camera. No batteries, not automatic settings. Aperture, shutter speed, focus, all needs to be done by hand. Even the film need to be wound by hand. During his high school days he works as a tourist photographer at the canal boats in Amsterdam for a photo laboratory it allows him to buy and develop his pictures cheaper but above all it helps him to understand the art of capturing light on film. Naturally nowadays in the age where pretty much every picture is made digitally Out still considers analog photography the best learning school for people who want to become professional photographers.

Circuses

Piet-Hein Out his circus pictures have been used by Zippos Circus (UK), Circus Krone (D), Cirque Berserk (UK), Cirque Medrano (F), Cirkus Benneweis (DK), Chinesischer Staatscircus (D), Circus Roncalli (D), Wintercircus Martin Hanson (NL), Circus Herman Renz (NL) and many others.

Magazines

Piet-Hein Out his circus photography appears on a regular basis in the Dutch ‘Circusmagazine De Piste’, as well as the English circus magazine King Pole. His circus pictures have also been published in some of Europe’s other circus magazines such as Bretagne Circus (France) and die Circus Zeitung (Germany).

Newspapers

Some of the foremost newspapers and magazines sin Europe have published pictures taken by Piet-Hein Out. Amongst them are titles such as: De Telegraaf (The Netherlands), TimeOut (United Kingdom), Noord-Hollands Dagblad (The Netherlands), The Stage.co.uk (United Kingdom), Hamburger Abendblatt (Germany), Ouest France (France), Badische Zeitung (Switzerland), This is Cabaret (United Kingdom), Aachener Zeitung (Germany).

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