Profile photo by Marco ter Beek, Almere
In 1968 Chris van de Vooren started his career in photography as an apprentice to a reportage photographer. Soon he felt attracted to the music. In 1970 he got from a friend the chance to get to the presentation of the Jackson 5 in Amsterdam Hilton. He made his first photographs of the famous band and that was the beginning of a long lasting relationship, because over the years, all Jacksons regularly crossed his path.
In 1973 he registered under the name "Chris van de Vooren photography '.
Record company EMI asked Chris to do a photoshoot in a park in Haarlem of Oscar Benton and Monica. This became his first two single covers.
In 1974 he met Ron Heijmans, the PR man of record company Negram. He asked Ron if he allowes him to photograph for his own risk the artists of Negram. The first was the folk group Fungus who just had their hit with "Kaap'ren Varen". At the bar in his house, he shot one of the photos which later as press photo was purchased.
In February 1975 Chris was asked by Cor Aaftink, A&R manager of Negram, if he wanted to make a cover photo for the new album by the George Baker Selection with the subsequent worldwide hit "Paloma Blanca". This was his first assignment. Then many Dutch stars came along for making the cover- and / or publicity photo.
After two visits to Los Angeles Chris decided with the help of friends he had made overseas, in L.A. to try it in California. That worked very well but the U.S. government decided he nudged the bread from the mouth of their own photographers and he received no work permit.
In 1978 Chris came back to The Netherlands and grabbed the wire with the popmagazines and record companies again and he decided to open a studio in Amsterdam.
Married with Maud and daughter Rosely making their life richer they search for a cleaner environment to let their daughter grow up, which was found in Almere.
Because of the success the company grew quickly and became more staff assumed. In the years 80 Chris and his team was the most publicized pop photographer from The Netherlands, partly due to the publications abroad.
Till today over 600 album's, CD's and single's worldwide has one or more of his photo's on their cover.
In the years 90 the activities expanded to photography at TV productions en Chris was booked by clients from the media world.
Since the years 80, Chris is an avid golfer. The course is for him a nice meeting with many business relationships and Famous Dutch. An excellent opportunity to work with fun interwoven. He is increasingly being asked to work on recruiting celebrities for golf tournaments. Till now Chris and Maud 9 organized 9 tournaments abroad with golfing celebrities and a select number of journalists invited. Also TV Attention is given to this tournament.
In 2023 editor House of Stories published a hard cover book, written by Chris about his carrier and stories behind the scene with the stars he met during his photoshoots "Dichtbij de Sterren".
Available at Bol.com - Amazon.com - Bruna.nl etc.
