Biography

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Arja Hop and Peter Svenson worked together as artists and photographers, combining their respective backgrounds in visual art and photographic technology. Their collaboration focused on analogue photography and experimental photographic processes, with particular attention to colour, photographic materials and the possibilities of the darkroom.

 

Their shared practice developed through extensive experimentation with analogue photographic techniques and colour printing. They investigated the relationship between photographic materials, exposure, colour and the printing process, working with both established and experimental approaches to analogue image-making.

 

Their collaboration brought together artistic research and technical photographic knowledge. The darkroom was an essential part of their practice, providing a place for experimentation, precision and the development of alternative approaches to photographic printing.

 

Together, they produced and researched photographic works and processes between 2015 and 2025.

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Arja Hop (Hierden, 1968) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Sint-Joost in Breda and later pursued studies in biology and philosophy, alongside various professional courses, including theidentification of historical photographic processes at Leiden University. Since 2013, she has been researching plant-based colours specific to geographic regions.

 

Peter Svenson (Palmerston North, New Zealand, 1956 – Amsterdam, 2025) studied photographic technology at Wellington Polytechnic and later physics at the University of Auckland before

relocating to the Netherlands. From 1982 to 2004, he worked as an analogue photo printer in several Amsterdam laboratories. In 2005, he founded Aap-lab, where numerous renowned photographers have had their work printed.

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