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Hans was born in Holland and emigrated to Canada with his parents when he was 9, settling in rural Manitoba. In his teens he began to take an interest in photography and soon landed his first job as a professional photographer in Winnipeg. He also started photographing a number of the local bands on his own time. In the early seventies he moved to Vancouver and continued to shoot many well-known local musicians and groups, along with his day job as a commercial photographer. He first photographed the Slugs in 1979 and went on to shoot most of the group’s promo material and album covers, as well as several rock videos which Doug directed.
Hans first photographed Doug and the Slugs in 1979 and went on to shoot most of the group’s promo material, album covers, and several rock videos that Doug directed!
Videos: Love Shines, Tom Cat Prowl, and Terminal City as well as some others directed by Doug.
Simon ‘Sez’
Comments by Simon Kendall of Doug and the Slugs
We met Hans early in the Slug’s career, he was the band’s first experience with a professional commercial photographer. At the time Hans was working out of a big studio in the basement of Eaton’s downtown. I’m sure we were a challenging client: 6 unruly guys with an opinionated graphic artist (Doug) and his very specific vision for the group’s promo.
Safe to say nobody else had ever come in with masses of bologna, mustard, ketchup and cognac for an album cover photo shoot!
Doug and Hans worked well together, bringing some oddball and creative ideas to fruition. Using a handheld 16mm film camera and no crew, we had a blast filming the video for ‘Tomcat Prowl’. It was a pretty commando affair – driving around East Van in Hans’ station wagon and getting permission to shoot on the fly in locations like the late lamented Terminal City Iron Works, a poultry processing plant and on a rooftop overlooking English Bay.
When we regrouped in 2009 with singer Ted Okos, Hans kindly agreed to take our first promo shot. How fitting!
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