Bob van Dam (Combipress) | President John F. Kennedy with mayor Willy Brandt en federal chancellor Konrad Adenauer, Berlin, Germany (1963)
Bob van Dam (Combipress)
Bob van Dam, who came from a family of seafarers, embarked on a career in journalism after the war. After his military service he did voluntary work for a publishing firm in The Hague. He made his first photographs as a journalist for this form of the famous TT motorbike races in Assen. His next job was a post in the public relations department of KLM at Schiphol Airport. Three years later, in 1955, he set up the Combi Press Service in Amsterdam. For the first six months he did chiefly More »
Bob van Dam, who came from a family of seafarers, embarked on a career in journalism after the war. After his military service he did voluntary work for a publishing firm in The Hague. He made his first photographs as a journalist for this form of the famous TT motorbike races in Assen. His next job was a post in the public relations department of KLM at Schiphol Airport. Three years later, in 1955, he set up the Combi Press Service in Amsterdam. For the first six months he did chiefly journalistic work, but after a crash course on the staff of the Daily Sketch in London and Quick magazine in Munich he started producing photo-reportages in 1956. Between 1957 and 1965 Herman Stegeman was Combi's regular photographer. During this period Van Dam or Stegeman travelled extensively abroad to photograph stars of screen and stage in various studios.
At the end of the fifties Combi became one of the first agencies in the Netherlands to specialise in international entertainment. A considerable part of this archive duly consists of photographs of celebrities from the world of film, television, theatre and music. In the late fifties the rising British and American pop groups were prominent among them - there are several unique pictures of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Bob van Dam's chief activity was supplying magazines with complete reportages - text and photos. He was a correspondent for the Daily Sketch, Quick, Sie und Er, the Schweizer Illustrierte, France Dimanche and, in the Netherlands, De Spiegel, De Post and several music magazines. Combi Press Service's clients also included international tourist organisations, record companies and the Hilton Hotel.
At the beginning of the sixties the accent shifted to the film industry and theatre. In addition to assignments for the entertainment world, Combi made complete reportages of momentous occasions. Highlights include Van Dam's photographs of the Marcinelle pit disaster in Belgium and of President Kennedy's visit to Berlin. Two pictures from the latter reportage made the world press and were used for the cover of Arthur M. Schlesinger's book A Thousand Days - Kennedy in the White House. Another major assignment was the reportage of the wedding of Princess Beatrix and Claus von Amberg, a co-production by Combi Press Service and other press agencies. Between 1970 and 1972 Bob van Dam confined his activities to portrait photos of Dutch actors and actresses. This archive is valuable in that it provides a visual record of the rise of the entertainment industry in the Netherlands and the dawn of the television era. « Less
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