Chas Gerretsen (born 22 July 1943 in Groningen, Netherlands) is a Dutch-born war photographer, photojournalist and film advertising photographer. His photographs of armed conflicts, Hollywood films and CelebrityPortraits have been published in major magazines.
Gerretsen left the Netherlands at the age of sixteen and after travelling through Europe for two years, immigrated to Australia in 1961. He first started to take pictures while working as a crocodile hunter in Cape York Peninsula, (Queensland, Australia)
1975–1989 He resided in Hollywood, working on feature films in, as well as outside the USA.
At the end of 1989 Chas had had enough, he sold everything, his house, his studio and his cameras and bought a 44 ft sailboat. And for the next 33 years he went sailing-financially surviving with occasional paid charters. While sailing he wrote his autobiography and published several photo books.
Vietnam (1968–1969)
On 14 February 1968, (during the Tet Offensive) he walked from Cambodia into South Vietnam (via Gò Dầu Ha)[4] and soon thereafter started his career as a freelance photojournalist and cinematographer. He became friends with Dana Stone and his wife Louise[5] and acquired his first Nikon F with a 105mm lens from Dana as well as his first lessons in what not to do when out on patrol.
At the end of '68 and beginning 1969, there was a relative quiet in South Vietnam and Chas as well as many of the other "resident" war photographers, left (among others: Sean Flynn and Dana Stone), only to return upon the American invasion of Cambodia.
Cambodia (1970–1972)
In 1970, when hearing of the American invasion of Cambodia Chas bought a train ticket in Paris on the Orient Express to Istanbul, Turkey, and traveled on by bus through Iran, Afghanistan (Khyber Pass) to West Pakistan and from there, he flew to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. While in Cambodia, he continued working freelance and in addition started contributing articles (under the pseudonym of Bill Steiner) to the Copley News Service.
The image of General Pinochet has an unusual history: it was used on posters, flyers and banners and was often reworked to portray the general as an inhuman monster.[7] And over the years continued to be used by various political factions to illustrate the perceived inhumanity of some political leaders.[8]
In 1982 a couple of art student in Concepción copied Chas’ photo of general Pinochet with the premonitory message, “NINGUNA CALLE LLEVARA SU NOMBRE” (No street will bear your name) It was plastered on walls on the evening before the days of national protests. [9]
The first time Chas photographed General Pinochet, unwittingly,[10] was on 29 June 1973 during the failed "Coup d'Etat", known as El Tancazo, which the general, ironically, helped put down.
The images taken by Chas on 11 September 1973 were used in the initial concept of the reconstruction of the coup d'état in the film The House of the Spirits based on the novel of the same name by Isabel Allende, a niece of the former president Salvador Allende.[11]
Chas Gerretsen in front of one of his best known images of the 1973 "Coup d'Etat", of which three are etched into a glass wall separating the halls in the “Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos” in Santiago, Chile. The walls were donated, in 2010, by the Dutch Government/Citizenry to the museum.
Hollywood (1975–1989)
In 1975, while visiting Gamma offices in Paris, wondering where to go next, a fellow Gamma photographer suggested, sarcastically, "why don't you go and find yourself a war in Hollywood."
Apart from his still photographs, his contribution to the film was the suggestion, during a lunch with Francis Ford Coppola regarding the scene where a TV correspondent (played by Francis Ford Coppola) yells at some passing soldiers, "Don’t look at the camera." "..that if Francis wanted to mock TV correspondents in South Vietnam he should create a photojournalist because, "we were all crazy."
Lee Beaupre,[15]publicist for "Apocalypse Now[16] " until his murder in 1979, wrote in a publicity release on Chas Gerretsen as a war photographer for Apocalypse Now, "From Real to Reel". "His (Chas Gerretsen's) photographic career had come full circle." The release was later withdrawn since it was decided that Sean Flynn, son of actor Errol Flynn had more publicity value.
In 1984 Chas produced and directed a one-hour documentary "The Longest Holiday" a view on the Joys of Aging in Sun City, Arizona which was bought by RAI, ORTF and the BBC. During his time in Hollywood, he worked as a "special advertising and publicity photographer" on over a hundred feature films.
After leaving the French photo agency Gamma over 80.000 of his photographic negatives and slides were missing, including many from Chile. The remainder of his files, his negatives and slides are now stored in the archives of the Netherlands Photo Museum.
Rediscovery
In June 2019, KINO Rotterdam made a short (32 min) documentary about Chas's life and the images he had taken during the six months he worked as a still photographer on Apocalypse Now. The documentary was chosen for participation in the Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, Italy. "The Dutch Angle: Chas Gerretsen & Apocalypse Now" created a lot of interest and was included in the Blu-ray release of 'Apocalypse Now Final Cut'.[17][18] Gerretsen's photographs were 're-discovered' in 2020. A 256-page photobook, Apocalypse Now, The Lost Archives, with many never-before-published photographs, taken during his six-months stay on the set in the Philippines, was published by Prestel/Pinguin/Random House. The book was released worldwide in September 2021.[19]
A retrospective exhibition of his work and life was exhibited 16 October 2021–8 May 2022 at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam.[20] A 256 page catalogue, in English and Dutch, accompanied the exhibition.
In addition, his autobiography[21] was released in the Netherlands on 11 September 2021, to excellent reviews by all the major Dutch newspapers.
In 2023, after several years of negotiations and with the help of the Dutch Embassy in Chile and others, the Chile part of his photo exhibition was moved to the ‘Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos’ in Santiago and renamed: “Rebobinar, reimaginar, reportar” (Rewind, reimagine, report). In time for the commemoration of 50 years after the coup d’état of September 11, 1973: an exhibition of more than 800 of the images captured by the Dutch photographer in Chile in the months before and after the coup d'état, many of them never published before. At the emotional opening of his exhibition on August 18, he also introduced his photobook, ‘Chile El archivo fotográfico 1973-74 (Chile The Photographic Archive 1973-74) Which became the number 1 non-fiction bestseller in Chile from 21-27 September, 2023.
On November 11, 2023 the Spanish edition of “Chile the Photo Archive 1973-74” received the FELIFA International Award for the best published photobook. The book will be exhibited in over a dozen locations throughout Latin America in 2024/25.[22]
2021 “Starring Chas Gerretsen”[24] (English) ISBN978-9462264069 Catalogue, published with the first retrospective exhibition of the work of photographer Chas Gerretsen, this book presents all of the photographs from the exhibition at the Nederlands Fotomuseum together with archival material. Showing a penchant for adventure from a young age, Gerretsen worked as a war photographer in Vietnam and was on the ground during the 1973 Chilean coup d’état. He later settled in Hollywood, where he shot numerous celebrities and was also present on the set of Francis Coppola’s ‘Apocalypse Now’. With an essay by curator Iris Sikking, who combed through thousands of images to produce a selection accurately reflecting Gerretsen’s multifaceted career.
2021 “Het wonderbaarlijke en vreemde leven van Chas Gerretsen”[26] (Dutch) ISBN978-9024434473 The autobiography was originally written in English (“The marvelous and strange life of Chas Gerretsen”) and translated into Dutch. It has not been released in English.
2023 "Chile The Photo Archive 1973/74"[28] (English) ISBN978-9462264847 A visual memory of Santiago of what life was like during the tumultuous year of 1973, the violent military overthrow of the democratically elected President Salvador Allende on September 11. And one year after, under the military junta of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
Gerretsen, Chas. In: Wim van Sinderen et al.: Fotografen in Nederland: een anthologie 1852–2002. Ludion, Amsterdam; Fotomuseum, Den Haag 2002, ISBN90-76588-35-X, S. 124–125.
Veronica Hekking: Een foto als voertuig van de macht. Gebruik en hergebruik van Chas Gerretsens portret van Augusto Pinochet. In: Nelke Bartelings et al. (Hrsg.): Beelden in veelvoud. De vermenigvuldiging van het beeld in prentkunst en fotografie. Leids Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek 12, Leiden 2002, S. 409–426.
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The 1973 Chilean coup d'état was a military overthrow of the democratic socialist president of Chile Salvador Allende and his Popular Unity coalition government. Allende, who has been described as the first Marxist to be democratically elected president in a Latin American liberal democracy, faced significant social unrest, political tension with the opposition-controlled National Congress of Chile, and economic warfare ordered by United States president Richard Nixon. On 11 September 1973, a group of military officers, led by General Augusto Pinochet, seized power in a coup, ending civilian rule.
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![General Augusto Pinochet, Sept. 1973 (Fiestas Patrias, Iglesia de la Gratitud Nacional [es] in Santiago) General Augusto Pinochet, 19 September, 1973.jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4d/General_Augusto_Pinochet%2C_19_September%2C_1973.jpg/220px-General_Augusto_Pinochet%2C_19_September%2C_1973.jpg)
