ABOUT MY WORK
"Whether it’s the depth in someone’s eyes, the dance of a flower in the light, or the endless waves of the sea – each portrait is a silent ode to life in all its forms."
Since graduating from the Fotoacademie in 2014, I have been active as a professional photographer. What began as a career in portrait photography, with my own practice focused on capturing people at their most beautiful and authentic, has transformed since the COVID-19 pandemic into a much freer and more intuitive way of making images. I have fully dedicated myself to fine art photography. Whereas commissioned work once placed the human subject at the center, my own artistic vision now takes precedence.
If only I could paint is a photographic translation of what I see and would like to paint or draw. I explore ways in which a photograph can feel like a painting or a drawing—not by imitating historical styles, but by re-examining the materials and the sensory experience of these art forms. To achieve this, I make use of both stillness and movement.
Photography is no longer a profession to me, but a way of life. I am engaged in creating images on a daily basis, a process that never comes to a standstill and continues to deepen and expand. My work is a continuous search for beauty, layering, and meaning, in which color and light can endlessly fascinate me.
My subjects are real, and the images are clear yet dreamlike. They possess a painterly quality, as I strive for harmony and stillness within an atmospheric, contemporary realism. A work is successful when the viewer is momentarily led astray.
Puck Soetens (1970) lives and works in The Hague. She graduated from the Fotoacademie in Rotterdam in 2014. Since then, she has been working as an independent portrait and fine art photographer. She is represented by Warnars Art Dealers in Haarlem and De Galerie Den Haag in The Hague.
EXHIBITIONS
Upcomming
jan 2026. If Only I could paint, Solo exhibition, Midewest, Rotterdam
maart 2026. PAF, Amsterdam
Past
okt 2025 Affordable Art Fair, Warnars Art Dealers, Amsterdam
okt 2025 Art The Hague, De Galerie Den Haag, The Hague
sept 2025 Hungry Eye Fair, Amsterdam
Mei 2025 Portraits of Nature, De Galerie Den Haag, the Hague
Mei 2025 Discovery Art, Cologne, Germany
2025 Warnars Art Dealers, Haarlem
2024 Nock Nock Art Fair, Amsterdam
2024 Open Atelier, The Hague
2024 Haute Photographie, Amsterdam
2024 September Bloom, Warnars Art Dealers, Haarlem
2024 Haute Photographie, Rotterdam
2024 Flower Fields, De Galerie Den Haag, the Hague
2023 Haute Photographie, Amsterdam
2023 Joined De Galerie Den Haag, The Hague
2022 “Women in Art”, Kiekie Art, De Hallen, Amsterdam
2022 Open Atelier Route, The Hague
ABOUT ME
I (1970) live and work in The Hague. In 2014, I completed my photography studies at the Fotoacademie in Rotterdam. Since then, I have been working as an independent portrait and fine art photographer.
Den Haag