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Rangefinder
Magazine Profile: Albert Koetsier by Larry Singer
Coincidentally, when I, and thousands of my fellow preteen baby boomers finished each colorful illustrated issue featuring the Man of Steel, many of us also looked longingly at a gaudy, slightly trashy, but infinitely seductive ad for X-ray specs on every issue’s inside back cover. These specs were novelty glasses that made the explicit promise to those who ordered and wore them: “A great effect that makes it look like seeing through clothing.” Whether Albert Koetsier, a photographer blessed with super determination, inventiveness and artistic sensibilities, was in any way influenced by this questionably effective product while growing up in the Netherlands, remains a topic for speculation. But there’s one thing for you can bet on: as an adult, Koetsier, a California radiological camera and printing virtuoso, does things with X-rays that most people never dream of.
A Young Prodigy “ I was always working with mechanics,” he recalls, “and actually building that first camera was quite simple. At that time, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, wristwatches had little springs inside. I used one of these little pieces from a wristwatch as a shutter. I made pictures with negatives that were about a square centimeter, or about a 1⁄4-inch square. I also built an enlarger to enlarge them to a more reasonable size.” Although this was the first enlarger Koetsier built, it would not be his last. Unable to find an enlarger big enough to handle X-ray film, which requires a special low temperature light source, another enlarger building process began, this time with the help of his son.
“ I couldn’t find the light I need for my enlarger, so I had it made. There’s a company here that makes neon lights. I made a sketch of what it should look like, and they made one—a cold light with certain frequency.”
The smallest negative Koetsier works with is 4x5 inches. The next size jumps to 8x10 and then moves up to a whopping 11x14 inches. “This size of film is generally unknown in the normal photography world,” he says, “so I have to buy it from vendors that supply material to science and medical professionals.” “ I do not have to enlarge my negatives a great deal,” Koetsier says, “because an 11x14 negative is already very big, so I only have to enlarge the negative maybe 1.5 times. This keeps the light source relatively close to the paper.
“ Just to give you an example,” Koetsier says, “when I print certain negatives, part of the paper needs only 10 seconds of exposure, while other parts of the paper might need hundreds of seconds of exposure. This means I’m continuously dodging and burning the print by moving my hands around over the print. Because I have to use film that is not made for printing, it’s pretty nerve-wracking work.”
While in a doctor’s office at a hospital there, Koetsier spotted a calendar hanging on the wall that featured pictures of flowers taken with an X-ray machine. Impressed, he studied it for a while and decided to try this technique, at some future time, himself. After being transferred from Europe to the U.S., Koetsier found and purchased an old, discarded X-ray machine that gave him perfect results and is the one he still uses today.
You can, however, either borrow one from your friendly, neighborhood hospital, assuming they’re willing to let you play with a technology that can kill you in several dramatic ways, or you can go on eBay and buy a used RayMax X-ray machine, that originally sold for $27,000, for the bargain price of $12,000 plus $800 shipping. However, Koetsier warns, if you want to shoot flowers, it won’t work. “ The danger in adapting the machine for flowers, Koetsier warns, is the very high voltage generator powering the camera. “If you accidentally touch the wrong thing,” he warns, “then you have a funeral a few days later.” Röntgen Rules Being a man who has spent a good part of his life designing and servicing X-ray machines, Koetsier felt that something should be done to celebrate the centennial of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen’s first X-ray experiments.
To prove his point, Albert took his X-ray pictures in to the museum and soon thereafter had the first public exhibit of his hauntingly beautiful images. Although his pictures were slow to find widespread public acceptance, by year number four as a full-time X-ray photographer, art collectors began opening their wallets, and Koetsier’s career as an artist began to snowball. “ Now,” he says, “I’m so busy, that I can’t handle any more work.” Although he has become incredibly successful as an artist, only about five percent of Koetsier’s work is sold in galleries. Instead, most of his sales come at the art festivals that he travels to throughout the year.
“ I go to only the better shows,” Koetsier says, “like those in Chicago, St. Louis, Ann Arbor, Fargo, San Francisco and Denver.” When asked if he enjoys traveling around the United States and selling his work out of a tent, Albert laughs and says, “Very much so.” How much does he really enjoy creating X-ray art? “ Three years ago,” he states emphatically, “the company I had been working for had a new project and tried to get me to come back to work for them. I told them no. Even for a million dollars, I’m not going back.” And he means it. Albert Koetsier’s work can be seen at www.beyondlight.com/. Larry Singer is a former newspaper writer, photographer and artist now living in Lauderhill, Florida. He has taught photography in Florida and Denver and now has an obsession with hearts. He can be contacted at larrysinger@mac.com/. |
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Of all of Superman’s powers—X-ray vision,
chilling breath, super strength, and the ability to levitate—I
truly believe the coolest is the ability to see through anything not
shielded by lead, including Lois Lane’s demure, but nonetheless
alluring, attire.
Koetsier will put a variety of objects in front of his
800-pound X-ray camera, which he keeps at home. Then, in total darkness
he creates truly
unique images that sell so well at art festivals he has become one of
only a dozen or so people in the U.S. able to produce X-ray photographic
art as a full-time profession.
Alpha to Omega
Working with neon light is, Koetsier discovered,
different than using the standard tungsten variety found in most enlargers.
The main variation
is exposure time, which, Koetsier says, usually takes about 45 seconds. 
The Old Dodge and Burn
May
Was Pretty; June Was a Knockout
“
I may be the only artist who has a federal (FDA) authorization to make
X-rays at home as art,” he says. “I think they gave me
this authorization because I have a degree in electronic engineering
and physics,
and I know everything about radiation, which is very dangerous. You
can go out and buy an X-ray machine, but it is very expensive, it’s
very dangerous, and you need permission from the government, which
you probably wouldn’t get unless you can prove you understand
the dangers involved.” 
Forget Ritz or Wal-Mart
To make it work,” advises Koetsier, who takes a lot of magnificent
X-ray pictures of flowers, “You’d need some technical skills
to modify the machinery to adapt it for shooting plant life.”
“
I already had quite a collection of X-ray images,” he says, “so
I called the photo museum affiliated with the University of California,
and I asked them, ‘What are you going to do about the 100-year
anniversary of the discovery of X-rays?’ There was quite a silence
at the other end of the line before the person I was talking to asked
me what I meant. I explained that 100 years earlier X-rays were discovered
and they are a very important part of photography.”
One of Koetsier’s small 5x7-inch prints sells for $75.
His 22x28-inch, framed pieces, which are hand-tinted with oils, sell
for $795. The average
print he purveys goes for around $250.