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Frank was born on May 6th 1971 in Amsterdam.

His parents and grandparents were very active with photography and film, so Frank was already in contact with photography and film at a very young age. Especially his grandfather had a deep impact on him and inspired him from the start to pick up photography. At a young age the whole family moved to the NoordOostPolder, now part of Flevoland. A wonderful area of the Netherlands with great nature and lots of photo opportunities.

At the start nature and sports were the primary interests and especially animals in motion were a subject that was photographed with passion, this passion for movement became later a prime subject in the model photography. After many years of shooting analogue mainly as a hobby Frank picked up video and completely switched to the video side of imaging. At that moment he had started a computer company together with his wife Annewiek and they were living in Zwolle.

The computer company grew larger and larger and after a move to Espel (back to the NoordOostPolder) Annewiek and Frank moved to Emmeloord. In Emmeloord they bought a house with a connecting building for the computer company. In the company Frank started his own department of video/photo editing and professional calibrations and home theater installations. Frank is an ISF / HAA trained calibrator and up to today still combines his photography with calibrations and reviewing projectors/displays. After a few years their son Brian was born and the computer company moved to a larger building 100mtrs removed from their home.

This was when Frank started to realize that his passion was still in photography and video was not something he wanted to do for the rest of his life (although that can always change). He picked up photography again with a few point and shoot cameras but quickly moved to the new Canon 10D. At that moment he also started with model photography and due to the background in calibrations and video and of course photography before that the switch to digital was very quickly and Frank is one of those photographers that loves the whole digital revolution.

In 2003 his wife Annewiek took over the computer company so that Frank could totally aim for the photography, and he focused all his energy and passion on his photography.
In 2004 Frank started working with Wibi Soerjadi on most of his releases and this was the start of the path that is still being followed, Frank loves shooting artists and does this in a way that really tries to show the real character combined with good lighting a combination that is very much in demand at the moment.
In 2013 Frank and Annewiek stopped their activity for the Computer shop to focus on photography, also in that year they moved to a much bigger studio and educational centre to further the development of their photography business and workshops.

After shooting for a magazine as a staff photographer Frank realized this was not what he wanted to do full time and when the magazine stopped it was the time to take the route he is following now. Teaching has always been in Franks blood, for the computer company he did several seminars on home theater and calibrations and also at a very young age he was teaching guitar lessons to starting guitarists. In 2006 Frank made the choice to make a career move and decided to totally dive into teaching and giving seminars, this was not a wrong choice as he is teaching now worldwide for many manufacturers and companies. Of course his work is still published from time to time in magazines but only the assignments that give him the creative freedom he needs and finds important. Most of all Frank is however shooting for artists, designers, photography gear, educational purposes etc.

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Frank has released a book called „De magie van de kleine flitser” for the Dutch market and in 2014 the book “Mastering the modelshoot” has been released which Frank created in cooperation with Scott Kelby’s team, the book went bestseller within 6 months and gets rave reviews from all levels of photographers, he also released 10 instructional DVDs/Videos which are sold worldwide. In the studio in Emmeloord Frank teaches workshops on a weekly basis, but he also teaches workshops in other countries, sometimes for manufacturers but also for groups of photographers. In 2010 Frank was the first European photographer to join Kelbytraining (now KelbyOne), a group of the worlds best instructors in both photography and retouching.

Frank shoots mainly with medium format digital, at this moment a Leaf Credo digital back connected to a Mamiya RZ67ProII for studio work and a Mamiya DF+ camera with Leaf back for location work, for the sports and other areas of photography that cannot or are difficult to shoot with medium format he uses Sony DSLRs. Although Frank loves digital he rediscovered analogue when he switched to medium format and is shooting film with the RZ67ProII, Leica R and Yashica Matt 124, “the scans are great and have a certain look you can’t get really easy with digital” according to Frank

Although model/fashion photography is a huge interest for Frank he also shoots a lot of artists, what started with Wibi Soerjadi has led to a lot of famous and starting artists that found Frank’s work to be unique and fitting for their albums, books, publications etc. Over the years Frank shot images for : Wibi Soerjadi, Penney de Jager, Annemarie Kremer, Sarine Voorn, Sarina Kay, Ali B, Darryl, Brownie Dutch, DJ-Dash, Atif and Suggest, Bad Boyz, G.O.D. FthPrTIII (infamous mob), Magenta, Simon Kuipers, Sean Webster band ….. and many many more.

In 2010 Frank also started to shoot a series of “test” videoclips, he shot the hit “Number 1” for Atif and Suggest, “ikke ook” for Yung-C/Farell and “Friends” for Yvonne. For the future more plans are towards motion.

According to Frank capturing the artist in his or her “style” and feel is the most rewarding thing a photographer can do, he loves to find the challenges in really capturing the character instead of just creating a “pretty” image. The contrast between this and the glamour and glitter often asked for in Fashion photography really completes the “feeling” of photography.

Frank is recognized by many companies as a leading voice for their products and is active for many companies on trade shows and dealer events.
Frank is an X-rite Master Collorati, Adobe Influencer and DxO image master, and he works closely together with companies like Elinchrom, Lowepro, Benro, Sony, Manfrotto, Synology, Phottix, Lastolite, SmallHD, Rogue/Expo Imaging, Mamiya, Leaf, Sekonic, Adobe, Phase One, DxO, Topaz, Alien Skin, MacPhun in both beta testing as in their ambassador programs.

Frank Doorhof

Learning with Frank

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