The Making of a Photobook: Sanne Sannes’ Maquette for Diary of an Erotomaniac Photography

The Making of a Photobook:

Sanne Sannes’ Maquette for Diary of an Erotomaniac

Tamara Berghmans

Rijksmuseum Studies in Photography 6

Volume 6 of the Rijksmuseum Studies in Photography focuses on the maquette for Dagboek van een erotomaan by Sanne Sannes. Tamara Berghmans not only reconstructs the way Sannes shaped it over the years but also examines Sannes’ imagery and the international setting for nude photography in the Sixties. Although Sannes was not the only one to adopt female eroticism as his main theme, he proved to be a highly original photographer.

Sannes had worked on the maquette from approximately 1964 until his death in 1967, and he was in the throes of negotiating an American edition for international distribution. This might well have led to his breakthrough outside the Netherlands.

To say that Sannes was interested in women would be an understatement: he was obsessed by them and they are almost exclusively the subject of his photographs. Sannes was careful not to stray into pornography, a concern shared by his American agent who foresaw problems with US censorship if the book was too explicit. Sannes’ abrupt death put an end to these considerations (and to their discussion of other matters concerning the layout and the character of the book).

Manfred & Hanna Heiting Fund / Rijksmuseum

56 pages 40 full colour illustrations € 22,95

Sanne Sannes is mentioned in authoritative international publications on photobooks : Foto in omslag. Het Nederlandse documentaire fotoboek na 1945 / Photography between Covers. The Dutch Documentary Photobook after 1945 (Amsterdam 1989) by Mattie Boom; The Book of 101 Books (New York 2001) by Andrew Roth; the Photobook : A History. Volume I (London 2004) by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger; and the retrospective work on nude photography Livre de Nus (Paris 2007) by Alessandro Bertolotti. Sannes is discussed in various serveys of Dutch photography such as Fotografie in Nederland 1940 - 1975 (The Hague 1978); Roots + Turns. 20th Century Photography in The Netherlands (The Hague 1988); Fotografen in Nederland: een anthologie 1852 - 2002 (Ghent / The Hague 2002); and the recently published reference work Dutch Eyes. A Critical History of the Photography in The Netherlands (Zwolle 2007).Sannes also appears on the web. For instance, the blog Bint Photobooks devotes attention to him and posts its own films on his photobooks on YouTube. The main source that articles and publications draw on is art historian Cecile van der Harten's master's thesis Sanne Sannes - fotograaf (1988). This initial study consists of an extensive inventory of the unordered material in Sannes' archive. Van der Harten compiled a meticulous bibliography and an overview of his exhibitions and offered a good interpretation of the themes and topics in the photographer's oeuvre.

See for Dutch Books of Nudes Alessandro Bertolotti Sanne Sannes Anthon Beeke Ed van der Elsken Ginger Gordon Diana Blok Graphic Design Typography Photography ...

See also Het uur van de wolf: De vrouwen van Sanne Sannes a documentary ... After seeing a book of photos, Frodo Terpstra became captivated by the life and work of photographer Sanne Sannes, who died in a car accident in 1967 at the age of 30. Who was this man who took experimental, grainy erotic pictures of women? Sannes's photos suggest a degree of intimacy between the models and their photographer. Was he a playboy, some kind of James Dean of photography? To find answers to these and other questions, Terpstra visits relatives, old friends, models and possible loves from Sannes's past. Sannes's brother Rob owns his complete photo archive, but he isn't very communicative about Sannes. He can't seem to answer the question of who his brother actually was. Sannes's college friend Martin didn't know him very well, either. He was more closed than a cocoon." In the voice-over, Terpstra wonders if the pictures tell us something about his inner life, and if the myth of the sex maniac is really appropriate. In between the interviews, we see black-and-white images of Sannes's work and Terpstra divulges his findings and philosophies about who Sannes was and what the key to his work might be. The film is a result of the IDFA scenario workshop, which Terpstra won in 2004. En zie ook Nederlands Fotomuseum verwerft Sanne Sannes ...