Visual artist | Rotterdam
I am Maurits Kortenbout, a visual artist from Rotterdam. Photography is the starting point of my work, but the final image only comes into being afterwards.
In my still lifes, I photograph flowers, vases, insects and other elements separately. I then build them together layer by layer into a new composition. What ultimately emerges has never existed in front of my camera in that form.
My work therefore continues to move away from recording what is there towards creating what did not yet exist.
From recording to creating.
My background is in photography. For many years, the camera was primarily a way for me to record the world around me. While travelling, my attention to image, composition, light and detail continued to grow.
Gradually, my interests began to shift.
I realised that I no longer wanted only to respond to what happened to be in front of my camera. I wanted to determine for myself what took place within the image. Where the light came from. Which elements came together. What disappeared and what received all the attention.
In the studio, I found the space to develop this way of working further.
That is where the transition from photographer to maker began.
My still lifes are not created in a single exposure.
Flowers, vases, leaves, insects and other details are photographed separately and later brought together digitally. From those individual elements, a new whole gradually emerges.
During that process, I work highly intuitively.
I pay attention to colour, form, direction, rhythm and the tension between elements. A flower may move several centimetres before the balance feels right. An insect may provide a counterweight to a colour elsewhere in the image. Sometimes, an element I have worked on for hours disappears because it ultimately adds nothing.
I do not work from a fixed formula.
I look, adjust and look again.
For me, an image is finished when it feels right. That moment is difficult to define in advance, but becomes very clear while making.
This way of working requires time and attention. That is precisely where, for me, the strength of the process lies.
In 2026, Alpha became my first fully developed series of autonomous still lifes.
The series consists of six works in which flowers, Delft Blue vases, insects and other natural elements come together in carefully constructed compositions.
The historical flower still lifes of the Dutch Masters are an important source of inspiration, but Alpha does not attempt to reconstruct that visual language. I use photography and digital image editing to build a new, contemporary reality of my own.
The works are created entirely from separately photographed elements.
Built layer by layer.
Not captured, but created.
In 2026, I graduated from the Nederlandse Academie voor Beeldcreatie. During my studies, my work increasingly developed towards constructed fine art still lifes and autonomous work.
From my studio in Rotterdam, I continue to develop this visual language. My work is shown at exhibitions and art events and is available in limited, numbered editions.
Since 2026, I have been a member of Karmijn Kunstenaarscollectief Rotterdam. I was admitted on the basis of my autonomous still lifes, in which the admissions committee recognised my own visual language, artistic development and technical control.
Since 2026, I have been Artist in Residence at Botanische Tuin Kralingen in Rotterdam. Within this residency, I am working on Fases in Vazen, an autonomous project consisting of four new still lifes: a summer bouquet, autumn bouquet, winter bouquet and spring bouquet. The garden, its annual collection and the changing seasons form the starting point throughout.
The residency gives me the space to continue developing my working method over a longer period and to explore how composition, detail, time and transience can be translated into new work. Fases in Vazen grows alongside the seasons throughout the residency and is gradually expanded as the individual works are officially completed.
More about Botanische Tuin Kralingen and Stichting Vrienden van de Botanische Tuin Kralingen.
Alongside my autonomous work, I create commissioned fine art portraits.
Here too, I am not looking for a quick record of someone as they happen to appear in front of the camera. Light, posture, clothing, colour and surroundings are deliberately constructed to create an image that goes beyond a conventional portrait.
The approach is different, but the starting point remains the same:
attention, control and the deliberate construction of an image.