modernism, which hesitates between functionalism,
neoplasticism, and Art Deco, is perfectly matched by
Kessels’s photography, which is characterized by what
might be called a subdued constructivist aesthetic.
Although often employing bird’s eye views, diagonal
compositions, and oblique framings, his images never
feature the radical fragmented structures and spatial
disorientations of Russian and German avant-garde
photography. Kessels presented modern buildings as
pristine but stable objects, where the sculptural mass is
stressed by a subtle balance of light and shade.
His middle-of-the-road modernism is reflected
in his urban motifs as well. His bird’s eye view of
theSquare du Petit Sablon(1930) stresses the gentle
curves of a park and demonstrates an affinity to Al-
vin Langdon Coburn’s famousThe Octopus(1912),
a bird’s-eye view of a snow-covered park rather
than to La ́szlo ́Moholy-Nagy’s more abstract and
dynamic depictions of the urban landscape. His pic-
ture of Brussels’Grand’Place(1930), taken from
the tower of the town hall, contains two obligatory
constructivist characteristics: the bird’s eye view
and a predilection for pronounced shapes that
bisect and structure the image, providing it with
contrasting patterns of light and dark. In this
case, however, the graphic elements are gothic tra-
cery instead of modern iron or steel work, and the
vertical view shows a village square rather than a
hectic metropolis. The disjointed rhythms of scale
and the kaleidoscopic effects, so characteristic of
avant-garde depictions of the metropolis, are ab-
sent even in his urban montages.Habitations indi-
viduelles(1932), the photomontage of modernist
dwellings he made for the bookBruxelles-Atmo-
sphere, shows a relatively coherent structure and a compositional stability not seen in the work of his peers. In the early 1930s, Kessels participated in two important photo exhibitions organized by the surreal- ist E.L.T. Mesens:Internationale de la photographie andDeuxieme exposition internationale de la photogra-
phie. Both exhibitions were held at the Brussels Palais
des Beaux-Arts and featured works of the leading
photographers and international avant-garde artists
of the day. Kessels was represented with a character-
istic selection, which, along with his architectural and
urban photography, included nudes and various com-
mercial commissions. His nudes, although often be-
traying classical aesthetic conventions and pictorialist
influences, contain unconventional viewpoints and
framings and traces of darkroom experimentation,
such as solarization. His advertising photography
for, among other clients, hotels, furniture manufac-
turers, construction firms, and pharmaceutical firms,
was a significant contribution to the rapid prolifera-
tion of the illustrated press during the 1930s—in Bel-
gium represented by magazines such as Le Soir
illustre ́,Les Beaux-Arts,Reflets,andVarie ́te ́s.Kessels’
advertising photographs, which he regularly com-
bined with his own graphic design, are often pretexts
for his experiments with composition and various
lighting techniques. Some of these commercial com-
missions are among his best works, especially those
that combine a kind ofNeue Sachlichkeit(New Objec-
tivity) sobriety with avant-garde techniques. In his
still-life compositions made for advertising purposes,
Kessels often imbues everyday objects with magical
qualities, resulting in almost surrealist effects such as
Saint-Nicolas chez Barbebleu(1937), his reportage of a
doll factory published in the magazineReflets.
Another highlight of his career is the still life
photographs he took forMise`re au Borinage(1933),
the documentary film made by Joris Ivens and Henri
Storck that deals with the notorious poverty, misery,
and social injustice in the coal mining region of the
Belgian Borinage. The pictures from this series that
were made with a large-format camera are sharply
focused and replete with detail, as can be seen in
portraits of miners and their families. These photo-
graphs are reminiscent of the work of predecessors
Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, and peers such as the Amer-
ican Farm Security Administration photographers of
the 1930s. Others, made with a small format camera,
are characterized by a slight blur, evoking a pictori-
alist interest in atmospheric effects. This can be seen
in the pictures of unemployed labourers scrambling
for bits of coal on the slopes of slag-heaps.
With this important contribution to the aesthetics
of realism, Kessels presents himself as a politically
engaged photographer. In the mid-1930s, however,
Kessels exchanged the unmistakably leftist over-
tones of the Borinage pictures for ultra-right-wing
leanings. Some of the Borinage pictures took on
entirely different meanings when they appeared
in a pamphlet distributed byRex, one of Belgium’s
fascist movements—a fact which illustrates the
highly complex and ambivalent relationships be-
tween modern art, photography, ideology, and pol-
itics during the 1930s. Kessels sympathized with the
Flemish nationalist and ultra-right-wing movement
Verdinaso, for which he shot a propaganda film. He
also made a portrait photograph of its leader Joris
Van Severen and during the Second World War,
after the collapse of the Verdinaso movement, he
photographed several leaders of the Belgian colla-
boration.
After the war, Kessels turned his camera to the
scenery and inhabitants of the valley of the river
Scheldt, which he had discovered during the early
1940s. His deeply humanistic portraits of localKESSELS, WILLY