“My stilllifes with Delft blue vases and flowers are more than decorative images; they are a tribute to timeless beauty and emotional stories.”
Rooted in Petals and Porcelain
Marieke Treffers’ photography doesn’t just catch the eye—it beckons the soul. Her work evokes the serenity of Dutch Golden Age still lifes while quietly whispering stories of modern resonance. A still life photographer based in the Netherlands, Treffers creates compositions that pay homage to heritage while speaking a contemporary visual language. With a foundation in classical imagery and a passion for storytelling, she elevates familiar objects—most notably the Delft blue vase—into symbols of continuity, emotion, and generational connection. Her photographs are never mere arrangements of flowers and antiques; they are living archives, saturated with memory, culture, and craftsmanship.
Raised in a lineage of bulb flower farmers, Treffers carries nature in her blood. This deep-seated connection to the land echoes in her preference for florals, always fresh, often gathered from her own garden, a source of joy and creative energy. Her academic background in photography, completed at the Dutch Academy of Image Creation, came later in life, affirming a lifelong dream that had been quietly growing alongside her early pursuits in drawing and design. She resisted the idea of becoming a professional artist for years, initially pursuing a career in communications before ultimately embracing the pull of photography at age 44. This late blooming adds depth to her perspective—her work carries the emotional maturity of someone who has rediscovered a calling, not stumbled into a trend.
Treffers describes her artistic mission as an effort to breathe new life into heirlooms, giving them presence beyond the physical. The Delft blue vase—a fixture in many Dutch homes and histories—emerges in her work not as a decorative prop but as an emblem of intergenerational continuity. These vases are often passed down within families, making their presence in her still lifes a profound gesture toward memory and belonging. Through a delicate pairing of such heirlooms with carefully selected blossoms, she constructs visual meditations on beauty, time, and legacy. Her compositions do not merely decorate—they memorialize.
Marieke Treffers: Where Tradition Meets Innovation
The dual forces of heritage and reinvention shape Treffers’ artistic voice. Drawing heavily from the aesthetic principles of 17th-century Dutch painting, she channels the mastery of light, shadow, and balance found in the still lifes of that era. Yet her work is never derivative. She adds a contemporary dimension through nuanced storytelling, subtle emotional cues, and the tension between permanence and ephemerality. In her hands, flowers become more than symbols of fleeting beauty—they are messengers of cultural identity, history, and personal reflection.
Her visual style pivots on the interplay between the classical and the current. Using age-old compositional techniques and historical references, she reimagines them through a modern lens. This approach allows her images to resonate on multiple levels—both as aesthetic experiences and as cultural commentaries. The viewer is invited to look closer, to notice the dialogue between the old and the new, between the material and the metaphorical. The influence of Dutch Golden Age still lifes is unmistakable, particularly in her use of light to create drama, mystery, and intimacy. However, Treffers infuses her scenes with a quieter, more introspective tone that reflects contemporary sensibilities.
Beyond visual storytelling, her photographs exude a tactile quality that enhances their emotional depth. Texture, surface, and detail are all treated with reverence. There is a sense of physicality in her work—a presence that extends beyond the frame and into the viewer’s memory. Her art invites contemplation, drawing the observer into a moment that feels both distant and immediate. With each composition, Treffers crafts not only an image but a space for reflection, where personal and collective histories intertwine.
Of Light, Silence, and Creative Rituals
Treffers’ creative environment is designed for focus and calm. Music hums softly in the background, a warm cup of tea anchors her within the moment, and the solitude of her studio provides the quiet she needs to think, feel, and create. This controlled, contemplative setting mirrors the atmosphere in her photographs—peaceful, deliberate, and emotionally rich. Distractions fade in such a space, allowing her to give full attention to the delicate process of building each scene, arranging elements until they resonate with just the right harmony of light and meaning.
Her journey through different photographic genres—portraits, corporate imagery, maternity shoots—served as essential stages in her development, though none fulfilled her in the way still life photography does today. Only through still lifes has she found a medium that fully encapsulates her artistic language. The structure of these images gives her the space to integrate her love of composition, symbolism, and emotional storytelling without compromise. This form allows her to be both precise and poetic, grounding visual beauty in historical and personal significance.
Although she continues to paint, Treffers finds photography to be her truest form of self-expression. With the camera, she can sculpt light and capture emotion in ways that painting cannot quite replicate for her. Photography enables her to articulate what she sees, what she remembers, and what she wishes to preserve. The image becomes a vessel for feeling and remembrance, a canvas where the ephemeral finds permanence. It is this unique relationship with the camera that shapes her voice as an artist and lends her work its unmistakable clarity and resonance.
Marieke Treffers: Preserving Memory Through Visual Storytelling
The notion of legacy is central to Treffers’ artistic ambition. Beyond creating individual images, she dreams of compiling her work into a photo book—one that weaves together family histories, treasured heirlooms, and intimate narratives through the lens of her still life photography. This project would expand on the core values already present in her work, offering not only a visual feast but also a deeply human narrative that connects readers to their own histories and sense of belonging.
Such a book would bring her full-circle: merging personal experience with artistic expression, while offering a broader platform for her exploration of memory, tradition, and identity. The inclusion of family stories and heirlooms would deepen the emotional impact of the images, allowing readers to experience the layered significance of each composition. It would not merely showcase her talent as a photographer, but serve as a visual anthology of cultural memory—an archive of emotional truths told through objects and arrangements.
Her vision positions photography as more than an art form—it becomes a keeper of stories, a preserver of time. In seeking to publish this book, Treffers reaffirms her commitment to honoring the past while speaking to the present. By focusing on the soul of objects like the Delft blue vase and the flowers that accompany it, she transforms still lifes into portraits of memory. Through this work, she invites her audience not only to look but to remember, to feel, and perhaps, to reconnect with their own cherished histories.
