C. BARTON VAN FLYMEN
C. Barton van Flymen (born in Johannesburg in 1944) is a Dutch-South African photographer who spent more than half a century capturing people and events that would become part of our collective memory.
A curious observer with a keen eye for people and their stories, he developed a distinctive way of seeing the world. His photographs became widely known. The man behind the camera remained far less so.
Beyond photography, Barton has a great passion for sports and journalism. He lives in Edam with his wife, Ria Cuppen. Together, they have two sons, Ramon and Lucas van Flymen.
THE PHOTOGRAPHER
THE PHOTOGRAPHER
From the late 1960s onwards, Barton van Flymen built an extraordinary career in photography in the Netherlands. After meeting photographer Wim Renes, he decided to become a photographer himself. In 1970, he received his first assignment as a sports photographer from Het Parool, covering an Ajax football match. His unexpected angles and fresh perspectives soon set him apart.
He went on to work for newspapers and magazines including de Volkskrant, Nieuwe Revu, Avenue and Margriet. His work took him around the world. He photographed artists, musicians, writers, politicians and sporting legends, but was just as likely to be found among protesters, alongside the Tour de France route or on the streets as history unfolded before his lens.
Barton developed into an unconventional portrait photographer with an instantly recognisable style. He experimented with a photographic process of his own invention that gave some of his portraits a distinctive golden glow, as seen in his well-known portrait of André Hazes.
His work received numerous awards. At the Zilveren Camera, he won prizes in the categories of Sports, Portraiture, and Arts and Culture. In 1975, he also received an award at World Press Photo for his photograph Amsterdam 700.
His photography has also been published in several books, including C. Barton van Flymen (Fotofolio, 2013), Portretten (2018), a retrospective spanning fifty years of portrait photography, and Cruijff 75 (2022), featuring photographs from his many years of photographing Johan Cruijff.
BEHIND THE C.
BEHIND THE C.
Behind the name C. Barton is Clifford Barton van Flymen. Born in Johannesburg in 1944, he grew up in South Africa during apartheid. As a teenager, he left his homeland alone and travelled to Europe, eventually building a new life in the Netherlands.
He rarely spoke about the country he had left behind. Even at home, much of his childhood and his departure from South Africa remained largely unspoken for many years.
Remarkably, it was photography that would later take him around the world. He watched, observed and documented the lives of others, while keeping his own history largely out of the picture.
For more than sixty years, he turned his camera towards the world. Now, there is finally room to look back, and for the first time, the camera is turned towards him.