About This Image

Very dramatic advertising image for sleeping pills. Embossed photographer's stamp on photograph recto.

Willy Kessels was born in Termonde, Belgium, in January 1898. After completing the Ecole des Beaux Arts of Gent, he went to Brussels and during the 1920s worked there as a sculptor and architectural draftsman. He met Le Corbusier in 1928.

He began his photographic career in 1929, considering this as a logical next step to his previous work. He saw in photography a modern means of representing the world. Kessels was very active during the 1920's and 30's, contracting to photograph industrial installations and advertising campaigns. His photo-montages, aerial views, angles and his work with light, illustrate the modern tendency of Belgian photography, which remained heavily influenced by Pictorialism. He is perhaps best known though for his nudes.

Kessels died in 1974.

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