The photobooks of Contact Uitgeverij Amsterdam

Amsterdam tijdens de hongerwinter.

Amsterdam / De Bezoge Bij/ Uitgeverij Contact / 1947 / First edition / 72 p. / cb. in wrappers / b&w photographs / NN / Buch / Zeitgeschichte, Zweiter Weltkrieg - Photographie - Anthologie - Nederland, Niederlande, Amsterdam - 20. Jahrh. - Andriesse, Emmy - Blazer, Carel - Breyer, Charles - Oorthuys, Cas - Taconis, Kryn - Windig, Ad

Amsterdam tijdens de hongerwinter by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger in : The Photobook: A History volume I
The book was published two years after the liberation of Holland from the Nazis. It marks both an end and a beginning. When it was published, the leading members of the Underground Camera group, like the country, were about to move on. As members of a new group, GKf, most of them took part in the exhibition 'Foto'48'. Amsterdam tijdens de hongerwinter looked back, while 'Foto'48' looked forward, but both shared a manifesto that made a passionate plea for an anti-formalist documentary photography that would help forge a more just and free Holland, following the occupation.
Thus this not simply a book remembering and commemorating Amsterdam's dreadful winter of 1944-5, but also a political rallying cry for the future. As the journalist Max Nord wrote in the book's introduction: 'Was it not those times that we dreamed our most beautiful dreams?...While uniformed Germans marched along Amsterdam's canals, their clipped songs resounding past the overcrowed prisons, we had a clear vision of the most perfect freedom.'
Nevertheless, the publication's first task was to bear witness, as photographers like Cas Oorthuys and Emmy Andriesse knew when they made these pictures, often at some risk. The story told is of extreme hardship - hunger, poverty and cold. People stand in food queues of search desperately for firewood, while others lie dead or dying on the streets. But, it also showed resilience and resistance: the forging of identity cards, the printing of underground magazines. Much of the book is shot in a style that could be ragarded as the opposite of formalist - not exactly anti-formalist, but a mode where the primary considerartion was getting the picture, no matter how out-of-focus or blurred it might have been. This snatched, off-kilter approach generated an immediate, spontaneous aesthetic of its own, which fed directly into postwar Dutch photography in an extremely positive way. So this was an important book in that sense also. It was a landmark publication by a group of photographers with both an ethical and an aesthetic attitude, a group who would exert a great influence on Dutch photography and the Dutch photobook in the late 1940s and 50s.

Hans Aarsman Nederlands Fotomuseum Aarsman's Amsterdam Hollandse taferelen

Hans Aarsman - Hollandse Taferelen - Amsterdam, Fragment Uitgeverij, 1989 - eerste druk - ongepag. (98pp.) - gebonden in linnen band met stofomslag - 20,3 x 26cm - conditie: fraai, zeer, zeer minimale gebruikssporen, die zich beperken tot de stofomslag - oplage 2000 exemplaren.

Referentie:
Parr & Badger - The Photobook: A History Volume II - Pag. 69
Frits Gierstberg; Rik Suermondt - Het Nederlandse fotoboek - pag. 28 - "Betekenis en impact van 'Hollandse Taferelen' voor de Nederlandse fotografie van de jaren 90 kunnen nauwelijks worden overschat"

Van maart 88 tot februari 89 trok de fotograaf-auteur met een kampeerbus en een grote technische camera. Hij maakte foto's van landschappen, dorpen, soms treffende gebeurtenissen zoals de tewaterlating van een schip, een kleine kettingbotsing, een folkloristische optocht. Hij streeft naar het vastleggen van het alledaagse en juist daarin iets bijzonders (schoonheid, verwachting, rust, verwondering) te laten zien. In het boek zijn 36 kleur en 3 zwart-wit foto's opgenomen op paginavullend formaat. Bij elke foto staat vermeld de plaats van opname. Tijdens de reis schreef de fotograaf een column in Trouw en maandelijks een stukje in Foto. Hiervan is ook een aantal opgenomen (25 blz. tekst, kleine letter). Thema's hierin zijn: het nut van de fotografie, het lot van de alleenstaande, notities over kijken/beschouwen en over voorvallen en (sporadische) ontmoetingen...

(NBD|Biblion recensie, Piet Huson.)

Lettering in Havana by Luc Devroye Typography Graphic Design

Lettering in Havana

Lettering in Havana by Luc Devroye Typography Graphic Design

Lettering in Havana

Tha Art of the Revolution Cuba Posters Sontag Stermer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gt7axc3aHY

The roots of the Cuban poster traditionCuba is a literate nation of 11 million people. It is a small enough that posters are an eminently viable medium for reaching wide audiences. Havana is a cosmopolitan capital of 1 million, which has been a cultural nexus between the old world and the new ever since the "discovery" of the Americas in 1492. As in Europe and the United States, lithographs appeared in Cuba in the mid 1800's. The emergence of a booming film industry in the 1940s - and posters publicizing those films - led to the first distinctly domestic style. In 1943 the U.S. exhibit "Originals of Tamigraph: Silk Screen Originals," which included 55 works by 27 artists was a significant impetus for the emergence of fine-art screenprinting in Cuba. This also spawned work of a distinctly political nature, the birth of Cuban political poster art. During the 50s some artists applied their talents to printmaking, but it continued to remain no more a significant cultural form than painting or sculpture. However, it was the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista and the immense national transformation that followed that led to the "golden age" of Cuban posters. The non-commercial mass poster was the direct fruit of the revolution, a conscious application of art in the service of social improvement. State resources were allocated for a broad range of cultural and artistic projects, and posters were the right medium at the right time.Poster production since the revolutionThe vast majority of posters produced in Cuba have been under the auspices of three agencies: Editora Politica, OSPAAAL (the Organization in Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America), and ICAIC (the Cuban Film Institute). Editora Politica (EP) is the official publishing department of the Cuban Communist Party, and is responsible for a wide range of (mostly) domestic public information propaganda in the form of books, brochures, billboards, and posters. In addition, many other agencies utilized the resources and distribution powers of EP for their own work, including FMC (the Federation of Cuban Women), the CNT (the National Confederation of Workers), and OCLAE (the Latin American Students Association). EP started out as the Commission of Revolutionary Orientation (COR, 1962-1974), then became the Department of Revolutionary Orientation (DOR, 1974-1984), and finally settled on Editora Politica in 1985.OSPAAAL is officially a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) recognized by the United Nations, based in Havana, Cuba and with a board of representatives from all over the world. It is the primary producer of international solidarity posters in Cuba. Among its many activities has been the publication of Tricontinental magazine since 1967. At its peak its circulation was 30,000 copies, produced in 4 different languages and mailed to 87 countries. Included in most issues were folded-up solidarity posters, thus establishing the most effective international poster distribution system in the world. ICAIC produces posters for all films made in Cuba, and for many years also created publicity posters for foreign films shown in Cuba as well. These posters were all of identical size to fit in special kiosks throughout Havana. There are, of course, other venues for poster production. The Taller Artistico Experimental de Serigrafía Rene Portocarrero, founded in 1983, is a fine-art studio in Havana, always abuzz with students and teachers. Other agencies also have small shops, such as ICAP (Instituto Cubana de Amistad entre los Pueblos, or the Cuban Institute for Friendship between the People). And finally, there are small job shops that will produce work for any commercial client.Range of artistic content and styleOne of the characteristics that separates Cuban poster art from that of its historical antecedents - the Taller de Grafica Popular in Mexico in the 1930's, Polish film and political posters, and the state-sponsored posters of the Soviet Union and China - is the wide range of content and style. This is the result of several factors, including a long tradition of international influence in domestic artwork and a revolutionary government that was relatively open to experimentation and innovation. Although the "fine art" and "commercial art" worlds continue to exist in Cuba, a significant amount of resources and talent were funneled into challenging this capitalist dichotomy. Instead of selling products, artists could actually make a living using their skills to promote services and building community. Posters publicized motorcycle-based health brigades, joining the sugar harvest, working in the sugar mills efficiently, or planting healthy fruits and vegetables on available land. Some crops, such as tobacco, posed challenges; one poster pleads for "Your youthful hand" in helping the harvest , but another warns that "Tobacco burns health." Sports, education, and culture play a significant role; one poster for an armed forces chess tournament displays a commitment to play for keeps, another proudly proclaims "I am studying to be a teacher,"and a third uses a decidedly take-no-prisoners approach in promoting a conference on writers and artists.International solidarity is an important part of the Cuban culture, especially because the struggle against U.S. imperialism was being fought on Cuban shores. This deep connection to other underdeveloped countries struggling for self-determination resulted in many works succinctly and elegantly showing resistance against colonialism and U.S. imperialism. The persistent theme of "As in Viet Nam" underscores a deep national determination to be as self-reliant, brave, and resourceful as the people of Viet Nam, equating domestic food and industrial production with the urgency of armed struggle.Although most of the posters are produced in offset format, many of them (and all the older ICAIC posters) were done in silkscreen, in limited numbers. Many of the more popular ICAIC posters have been reissued, sometimes multiple times, to meet the demand for sales. Almost all of the stencils for the screenprinted posters were cut by hand, even many of the ones that "look" like large-dot photostencils.The current situationEver since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc in the mid-1990's, Cuba has been laboring under what has been officially described as the "special period". Economically, the country went into a tailspin, losing favorable trade agreements, oil and sugar subsidies, and technical assistance almost overnight. Ever since then, Cuba has followed a path of rebuilding its economy through international tourism. Massive joint-venture projects with Spain, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, and other nations have focused almost entirely on the hotel and ancillary service industries. This process, though justifiable given Cuba's limited options, has resulted in considerable distortion of the cultural fabric. All the poster-producing agencies have had to transform themselves from State subsidy to having to rely on fee-for-service to become self-supporting. Although an organization such as ICAIC may have a chance at pulling this off, agencies with an explicit political message such as EP or OSPAAAL are withering on the vine. This belt-tightening has affected art production in every way. Even billboard design favors use of white space because ink is in short supply. This difficult situation is compounded by a general disregard for intellectual property rights by foreigners, especially the United States. Because the U.S. government maintains such a hostile relationship with Cuba, many people assume that even if copyright is maintained it is unenforceable. All Cuban artists are acutely aware that although their work, mostly done for little pay, is a desirable commodity and can command high prices in the art market. Many Cuban artists were able to produce clippings from Christie's and others indicating sales of work in the over-$1000 range. This exploitation is not just limited to the high-end market. The web-based sales catalog of Barnes and Noble (a major U.S. bookseller) displays over 30 digitally-reproduced "Cuban posters," many originally created by OSPAAAL and ICAIC. With the exception of the Cuba Poster Project and the Center for Cuban Studies, I have never heard of a situation where sales of originals or reproductions were done with the authorization of the producing artist or agency, not to mention arrangements for compensation.
The task aheadPosters are a vital, expressive visual art which have historically been a medium of choice for presenting oppositional voices. Unfortunately, the timeless issues they raise are usually eclipsed by their short lifespan in the public record. A variety of factors conspire to dramatically limit the number of poster images which not only survive, but are available to researchers, organizers, and the viewing public. These include physical deterioration (bad ink/paper stability, staining and tearing due to poor display techniques, fading from exposure to sunlight, infestation by bugs and rot, damage from improper storage, etc.), irreversible damage and loss (insecure storage resulting in fire and water damage, posters being thrown out as trash), and privatization (posters being bought up by collectors/dealers). Cuba is no exception. As in the rest of the world, the very agencies which produced the works had devoted little energy to preserving them. An example of this a request by OSPAAAL in 1998 for display copies for an exhibit on Che Guevara; the agency did not have eight of the 18 different posters they had produced, and I was able to send down giant digital prints from archives created by the Cuba Poster Project.Because of the irreplaceable political and cultural heritage represented by this ephemeral art, I have been working with other independent poster curators (primarily Michael Rossman, an independent archivist, and Carol Wells, of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles) to develop an approach for documenting and cataloguing the images and information in such a way that these works will forever remain potent voices of change. We seek to empower poster-producing organizations to preserve their own visual history and allow them to breathe new life into images that were created many years ago. Because we are also concerned with preserving oppositional poster art in general, we see the documentation of "small" collections to be key pieces in the construction of a major archive of domestic and international posters. Much of this is based on recent developments in the digitization of images and databases that have only recently become affordable to smaller collections. One of the wonderful features of a digital catalog is that it is possible to build a complete "collection" without possession of the actual artifact, thus freeing producing agencies from the whole separate difficult task of poster collection and conservation. An image-rich database means that poster images can be quickly located and compared without reliance on curatorial memory or access to the actual poster. Lincoln Cushing, Docs Populi - Documents for the Public lcushing@igc.org

http://www.auctiva.com/stores/viewstore.aspx?id=17894

Tha Art of the Revolution Cuba Posters Sontag Stermer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gt7axc3aHY

The roots of the Cuban poster traditionCuba is a literate nation of 11 million people. It is a small enough that posters are an eminently viable medium for reaching wide audiences. Havana is a cosmopolitan capital of 1 million, which has been a cultural nexus between the old world and the new ever since the "discovery" of the Americas in 1492. As in Europe and the United States, lithographs appeared in Cuba in the mid 1800's. The emergence of a booming film industry in the 1940s - and posters publicizing those films - led to the first distinctly domestic style. In 1943 the U.S. exhibit "Originals of Tamigraph: Silk Screen Originals," which included 55 works by 27 artists was a significant impetus for the emergence of fine-art screenprinting in Cuba. This also spawned work of a distinctly political nature, the birth of Cuban political poster art. During the 50s some artists applied their talents to printmaking, but it continued to remain no more a significant cultural form than painting or sculpture. However, it was the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista and the immense national transformation that followed that led to the "golden age" of Cuban posters. The non-commercial mass poster was the direct fruit of the revolution, a conscious application of art in the service of social improvement. State resources were allocated for a broad range of cultural and artistic projects, and posters were the right medium at the right time.Poster production since the revolutionThe vast majority of posters produced in Cuba have been under the auspices of three agencies: Editora Politica, OSPAAAL (the Organization in Solidarity with the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America), and ICAIC (the Cuban Film Institute). Editora Politica (EP) is the official publishing department of the Cuban Communist Party, and is responsible for a wide range of (mostly) domestic public information propaganda in the form of books, brochures, billboards, and posters. In addition, many other agencies utilized the resources and distribution powers of EP for their own work, including FMC (the Federation of Cuban Women), the CNT (the National Confederation of Workers), and OCLAE (the Latin American Students Association). EP started out as the Commission of Revolutionary Orientation (COR, 1962-1974), then became the Department of Revolutionary Orientation (DOR, 1974-1984), and finally settled on Editora Politica in 1985.OSPAAAL is officially a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) recognized by the United Nations, based in Havana, Cuba and with a board of representatives from all over the world. It is the primary producer of international solidarity posters in Cuba. Among its many activities has been the publication of Tricontinental magazine since 1967. At its peak its circulation was 30,000 copies, produced in 4 different languages and mailed to 87 countries. Included in most issues were folded-up solidarity posters, thus establishing the most effective international poster distribution system in the world. ICAIC produces posters for all films made in Cuba, and for many years also created publicity posters for foreign films shown in Cuba as well. These posters were all of identical size to fit in special kiosks throughout Havana. There are, of course, other venues for poster production. The Taller Artistico Experimental de Serigrafía Rene Portocarrero, founded in 1983, is a fine-art studio in Havana, always abuzz with students and teachers. Other agencies also have small shops, such as ICAP (Instituto Cubana de Amistad entre los Pueblos, or the Cuban Institute for Friendship between the People). And finally, there are small job shops that will produce work for any commercial client.Range of artistic content and styleOne of the characteristics that separates Cuban poster art from that of its historical antecedents - the Taller de Grafica Popular in Mexico in the 1930's, Polish film and political posters, and the state-sponsored posters of the Soviet Union and China - is the wide range of content and style. This is the result of several factors, including a long tradition of international influence in domestic artwork and a revolutionary government that was relatively open to experimentation and innovation. Although the "fine art" and "commercial art" worlds continue to exist in Cuba, a significant amount of resources and talent were funneled into challenging this capitalist dichotomy. Instead of selling products, artists could actually make a living using their skills to promote services and building community. Posters publicized motorcycle-based health brigades, joining the sugar harvest, working in the sugar mills efficiently, or planting healthy fruits and vegetables on available land. Some crops, such as tobacco, posed challenges; one poster pleads for "Your youthful hand" in helping the harvest , but another warns that "Tobacco burns health." Sports, education, and culture play a significant role; one poster for an armed forces chess tournament displays a commitment to play for keeps, another proudly proclaims "I am studying to be a teacher,"and a third uses a decidedly take-no-prisoners approach in promoting a conference on writers and artists.International solidarity is an important part of the Cuban culture, especially because the struggle against U.S. imperialism was being fought on Cuban shores. This deep connection to other underdeveloped countries struggling for self-determination resulted in many works succinctly and elegantly showing resistance against colonialism and U.S. imperialism. The persistent theme of "As in Viet Nam" underscores a deep national determination to be as self-reliant, brave, and resourceful as the people of Viet Nam, equating domestic food and industrial production with the urgency of armed struggle.Although most of the posters are produced in offset format, many of them (and all the older ICAIC posters) were done in silkscreen, in limited numbers. Many of the more popular ICAIC posters have been reissued, sometimes multiple times, to meet the demand for sales. Almost all of the stencils for the screenprinted posters were cut by hand, even many of the ones that "look" like large-dot photostencils.The current situationEver since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc in the mid-1990's, Cuba has been laboring under what has been officially described as the "special period". Economically, the country went into a tailspin, losing favorable trade agreements, oil and sugar subsidies, and technical assistance almost overnight. Ever since then, Cuba has followed a path of rebuilding its economy through international tourism. Massive joint-venture projects with Spain, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, and other nations have focused almost entirely on the hotel and ancillary service industries. This process, though justifiable given Cuba's limited options, has resulted in considerable distortion of the cultural fabric. All the poster-producing agencies have had to transform themselves from State subsidy to having to rely on fee-for-service to become self-supporting. Although an organization such as ICAIC may have a chance at pulling this off, agencies with an explicit political message such as EP or OSPAAAL are withering on the vine. This belt-tightening has affected art production in every way. Even billboard design favors use of white space because ink is in short supply. This difficult situation is compounded by a general disregard for intellectual property rights by foreigners, especially the United States. Because the U.S. government maintains such a hostile relationship with Cuba, many people assume that even if copyright is maintained it is unenforceable. All Cuban artists are acutely aware that although their work, mostly done for little pay, is a desirable commodity and can command high prices in the art market. Many Cuban artists were able to produce clippings from Christie's and others indicating sales of work in the over-$1000 range. This exploitation is not just limited to the high-end market. The web-based sales catalog of Barnes and Noble (a major U.S. bookseller) displays over 30 digitally-reproduced "Cuban posters," many originally created by OSPAAAL and ICAIC. With the exception of the Cuba Poster Project and the Center for Cuban Studies, I have never heard of a situation where sales of originals or reproductions were done with the authorization of the producing artist or agency, not to mention arrangements for compensation.
The task aheadPosters are a vital, expressive visual art which have historically been a medium of choice for presenting oppositional voices. Unfortunately, the timeless issues they raise are usually eclipsed by their short lifespan in the public record. A variety of factors conspire to dramatically limit the number of poster images which not only survive, but are available to researchers, organizers, and the viewing public. These include physical deterioration (bad ink/paper stability, staining and tearing due to poor display techniques, fading from exposure to sunlight, infestation by bugs and rot, damage from improper storage, etc.), irreversible damage and loss (insecure storage resulting in fire and water damage, posters being thrown out as trash), and privatization (posters being bought up by collectors/dealers). Cuba is no exception. As in the rest of the world, the very agencies which produced the works had devoted little energy to preserving them. An example of this a request by OSPAAAL in 1998 for display copies for an exhibit on Che Guevara; the agency did not have eight of the 18 different posters they had produced, and I was able to send down giant digital prints from archives created by the Cuba Poster Project.Because of the irreplaceable political and cultural heritage represented by this ephemeral art, I have been working with other independent poster curators (primarily Michael Rossman, an independent archivist, and Carol Wells, of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles) to develop an approach for documenting and cataloguing the images and information in such a way that these works will forever remain potent voices of change. We seek to empower poster-producing organizations to preserve their own visual history and allow them to breathe new life into images that were created many years ago. Because we are also concerned with preserving oppositional poster art in general, we see the documentation of "small" collections to be key pieces in the construction of a major archive of domestic and international posters. Much of this is based on recent developments in the digitization of images and databases that have only recently become affordable to smaller collections. One of the wonderful features of a digital catalog is that it is possible to build a complete "collection" without possession of the actual artifact, thus freeing producing agencies from the whole separate difficult task of poster collection and conservation. An image-rich database means that poster images can be quickly located and compared without reliance on curatorial memory or access to the actual poster. Lincoln Cushing, Docs Populi - Documents for the Public lcushing@igc.org

http://www.auctiva.com/stores/viewstore.aspx?id=17894

Nico Jesse Oranje Nassau Mijnen Thijsen Company Photography

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TMaHUQIlBY

http://www.ta.tudelft.nl/coalpage/start_NL.htm

Oranje Nassau Mijnen. [With introductory text. Photography, layout Nico Jesse. Illustrations Gerard Douwe].
Heerlen / 1953 / 146 p. / spiral bound in cassette / 26x28cm / 163 b&w photographs / bedrijfsreportage / beeldverhaal over 'een-dag-uit-het-leven-van' een mijnwerker parallel aan een bedrijfsreportage. - Ill. ( color / vignet en initialen). / NN / Firmenschrift, Festschrift / Photographie - Monographie - Auftragsphotographie, commissioned photography - Nederland, Niederlande - 20. Jahrh. / Printed by Th. van Rossum, Utrecht (boekdruk). - Opdrachtgever: NV Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van Limburgsche Steenkolenmijnen genaamd Oranje Nassau Mijnen (60-jarig bestaan). - Beeldverhaal. In een als vroom te typeren beeldtaal staat de gemeenschapszin centraal. De oplage bedroeg 3535 exemplaren, uitgebracht in verschillende buitenlandse edities. Een 'werkalbum' van Oranje Nassau Mijnen berust in de bibliofiele collectie van het Nederlands Fotoarchief (nfa) in Rotterdam. De band is gevat in een kartonnen cassette. De tekst is gezet uit De Roos Romein.

http://www.auctiva.com/stores/viewstore.aspx?id=17894

Bart Sorgedrager Mensenstroom & Kernenergiecentrale Dodewaard

Mensenstroom - herinnering aan de Kernenergiecentrale Dodewaard

idee en concept Bart Sogedrager, Wouter Botman
fotografie Bart Sorgedrager
inleiding Wim Wennekes
begeleiding GKN (Jan Hoekstra, Els de Haas, Anne-Marie Peters-van der Linden), Sep (Frits Bos)
medewerking Herman Evers, Noudi Sponhoff
ontwerp en productie Vormgeversassociatie (Wouter Botman, Jenny van Driel)
tekeningen (uitz. p. 100) Vormgeversassociatie (Jenny van Driel)
lithografie Talens tekst & beeld
druk en afwerking Veenman Drukkers
oplage 1000 exemplaren

Bart Sorgedrager
In 1959 geboren in Terborg. Opgeleid aan de Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam en Parsons School of Design in New York. Werk als documentair fotograaf. Het liefst ziet hij zijn projecten gepubliceerd in boekvorm. Maakte onder meer de boeken ‘Goed Wonen in Nieuw West’ (samen met Jan Versnel), ‘Het laatste jaar van de veren over de Westerschelde’ en boeken over Ajax, de Nederlandse landbouwkolonies in Brazilië, het laatste jaar van de kerncentrale in Dodewaard, de architectuur van de Koude Oorlog, het Olympisch Stadion in Amsterdam, de Vinex-wijk Leidsche Rijn en over de Kruitfabriek in Muiden.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veItpVulJnc

http://www.auctiva.com/stores/viewstore.aspx?id=17894

Cas Oorthuys & Dick Elffers Rotterdam Dynamic city a symphony of Photography & Typography

Rotterdam dynamische stad : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7bA2CG4I4g

Oorthuys, Cas (1908 - 1975)

Working period 1938-1975

Description Cas Oorthuys captured the growing self-awareness of the Dutch in the period of postwar reconstruction in a unique fashion. His photographs show industrial recovery, a hard-working nation on the way towards a booming economy and a thriving tourist trade. Like many photographers in those postwar years, Oorthuys focused on people. His work is however characterised by the endeavour to generate interaction between the people in his photographs and the environment in which they live and work. Another remarkable aspect is his strong sense of composition: the photographs are conceived precisely within the matt glass square of his Rolleicord.Cas Oorthuys' life and work were shaped by World War Two and the events leading up to it. The economic crisis of the early 1930s lost him his Amsterdam municipal council post as an architect. He embarked on his photographic career with pictures of communist workers, and from 1936 was a photo-reporter for the social-democratic weekly Wij. When war broke out he tried to make a living with portrait photography. He also forged identity cards and in the Hunger Winter was a member of the group later known as The Camera in Hiding (De Ondergedoken Camera). This group had formed in order to record the liberation, which was expected imminently. When it failed to take place they illegally documented the last year of German occupation with photographic material which has retrospectively shaped our image of the Hunger Winter.After the liberation, social engagement remained a vital issue for Oorthuys. It is particularly evident in Een staat in wording (1947, a state in the making), a photo-book advocating a peaceful solution to the Indonesian struggle for independence. It was a vain hope, and changed Oorthuys' views about the function of photography. After this, he rarely used the medium as a political weapon. Henceforth, his photographs of people were prompted mainly by human interest.Although ideology receded into the background, people continued to feature prominently in Oorthuys' photos. This is demonstrated not only by his numerous industrial publications, annual reports and commemorative books dating from 1945 to 1975, but also by some forty travel paperbacks commissioned between 1951 and 1965 by Contact and the book Rotterdam dynamische stad (Rotterdam, dynamic city), published by the same firm in 1959. In 1969 the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam invited Oorthuys to stage a one-man show appropriately called Mensen/People. A book with the same title appeared that year. Oorthuys divided it into fifteen thematic groups, beginning with death and ending with laughter.Cas Oorthuys' prolific postwar production required an efficient administration. All his films were numbered, contact-printed and arranged according to subject in looseleaf books. With some 500,000 negatives and 444 books of contact prints, Cas Oorthuys' archive is one of the largest and most accessible of Dutch photo archives.

Biography
1908 Casparus Bernadus (Cas) Oorthuys is born on November 1 in Leiden.1926-1930 Studies architecture in Haarlem and develops an interest in photography.1930-1932 Employed by the Amsterdam municipal council as an architect, but loses his job in 1932 as a result of the economic crisis.1932 Joins the Vereeniging van Arbeiders-Fotografen (association of workers-photographers), founds the OV 20 combination for graphic design with painter Jo Voskuil and moves into a studio at 20 Prinseneiland. He and Voskuil provide photographs and photo-montages for brochures, magazines, book-jackets and posters.1936 Co-founder of the photo and film section of the Artists' Union in Defence of Cultural Rights (BKVK), and is involved in the organisation of the international exhibition The Olympiad under Dictatorship. A job as photographer for the weekly Wij and the daily Het Volk marks his decision to make photography his profession.1937 Participates in the organisation of the exhibition 'Foto '37' at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.1944 Liberation seems imminent, and a group of photographers - including Oorthuys - decide to photograph the event. It took another six months for the Netherlands to be liberated, however, and the group later known as The Camera in Hiding (De Ondergedoken Camera) photographed the ensuing Hunger Winter instead. In 1947 these photographs were collected in the book Amsterdam tijdens de hongerwinter (Amsterdam during the Hunger Winter.1945 Co-founder of the photographers' branch of the union of contracted artists (GKf).1946 Assigned by ABC Press to photograph the Nuremberg trials.1947 Spends two months travelling through Indonesia for the Contact publishing company, taking photographs for Een staat in wording (a state in the making), published that July.1951 Publishes Bonjour Paris, the first in a series of travel paperbacks for which Oorthuys visits numerous European countries until 1965.1955 Oorthuys and six other Dutch photographers participate in the exhibition The Family of Man at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.1956 Travels to New Guinea for Bredero's construction company.1959 Photographs in the Congo for the Belgian information service, and then for Billiton in the Tanganyikan and Rhodesian ore mines. The photo book Rotterdam dynamische stad is published.1969 One-man show at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam to mark Oorthuys' sixtieth birthday. The exhibition is accompanied by the book Mensen/People.1975 Cas Oorthuys dies on July 22 in Amsterdam.
.
Bibliography PRIMARY
D.J. Maltha, Landbouw, Amsterdam 1946
Alb. de la Court, Een staat in wording. Foto-reportage over het Indonesië van heden, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1947
C.H.J. Maliepaard (red.), Rundvee, Amsterdam 1948
Evert Zandstra en Cas Oorthuys, Zwervend door Nederland, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1950
C.H.J. Maliepaard (red.), Trekpaarden, Amsterdam 1950
J.W. de Boer, Rotterdam dynamische stad, Amsterdam 1959 [also english edition]
Bert Schierbeek, De draad van het verhaal, Wormerveer 1960
Gerrit Kouwenaar en Jan Mastenbroek, Amsterdam onze hoofdstad, Amsterdam 1963
Mensen/People, Amsterdam 19691944-45 het laatste jaar. Een verslag in foto's over onderdrukking en bevrijding, Amsterdam 1970
Guaranteed Real Dutch Congo, Rotterdam 1992Mensen aan de stroom. Reisimpressies van Cas Oorthuys in Belgisch Congo 1959, Tervuren 1992
.
Contact-photo-pockets:
Jan Brusse, Bonjour Paris. Bonsoir Paris. Au revoir Paris. Parijse begroetingen, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1951 [also german and french edition]C.J. Kelk, Dit is ons land Nederland, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1952 [also german, english, french and spanish edition]Han G. Hoekstra, Dit is onze hoofdstad Amsterdam, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1952 [also german, english and french edition]Ch.A. Cocheret, Dit is onze havenstad Rotterdam, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1952 [also german, english and french edition]Neville Braybrooke, Dit is Londen, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1953 [also german and english edition]Jan Brusse, De Franse Rivièra. Van Marseille tot Menton, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1954 [also english edition]Benno Premsela, Dit is Florence, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1954K. Jonckheere, Dit is België, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1955 [also american, english and french edition]Evert Zandstra, Dit is Oostenrijk, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1956René Patris, Dit is Rome, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1956Bert Schierbeek, Hart van Spanje, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1956 [also german edition]H. Molendijk, Dit is Amersfoort, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1957 [also german and english edition]A. den Doolaard, Dit is Joegoslavië, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1957A. den Doolaard, Dit is Venetië, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1958B. Delépinne, Dit is Brussel, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1958 [also german and french edition]Marise Ferro, Dit is de Italiaanse Rivièra, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1958A. den Doolaard, Dit is Griekenland. Het vasteland, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1958A. den Doolaard, Dit is Griekenland. De eilanden, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1959A.B. Wigman en A.M. Hammacher, Dit is het nationale park De Hoge Veluwe, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1960 [also german and english edition]H.J.A. Schintz, Dit is Zwitserland, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1960P. Cressard, Dit is Bretagne, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1961 [also french edition]Paul Ahnne, Dit is de Elzas, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1961 [also french edition]M. Pezet, Dit is de Provence, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1962Bert Schierbeek, Dit is Enschede, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1962 [also german and english edition]R. Penrose, Oxford & Cambridge, Amsterdam 1962 [also english edition]Jean A. Schalekamp, De Balearen, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1964W. Alings Jr., Napels en omgeving, Amsterdam 1964 [also english edition]Garmt Stuiveling, Dit is Hilversum, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1964 [also german and english edition]Wim Alings Jr., De Italiaanse meren, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1965

Contact-travel-pockets:
Evert Zandstra, Overijssel, Amsterdam/Antwerpen z.j.Auteur onbekend, De Vogezen. Lotharingen en de Elzas, Amsterdam/Antwerpen z.j.Evert Zandstra, Gelderland, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1953Evert Zandstra, De Ardennen, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1953Evert Zandstra, Luxemburg, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1953Evert Zandstra, De Waddeneilanden, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1954Evert Zandstra, Tirol & Vorarlberg, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1954A. den Doolaard, Joegoslavië, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1956Evert Zandstra, Limburg, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1957Evert Zandstra, Tessin, Amsterdam/Antwerpen 1959 [idem: Vakantie in Tessin, 1959]

stamp design:
'Kinderzegels' [stamps], 1951'Spoorweg-jubileumzegels' [2 stamps], 1964'Bevrijdingszegel', 1975
.
SECONDARY
Sybrand Hekking, Cas Oorthuys fotograaf 1908-1975, Amsterdam 1982
Flip Bool, 'Cas Oorthuys', in: Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse fotografie in monografieën en thema-artikelen, Alphen aan den Rijn/ Amsterdam 1984-, aflevering 22
Willem Diepraam, Een beeld van Cas Oorthuys, Amsterdam 1991

http://www.auctiva.com/stores/viewstore.aspx?id=17894

Dutch Graphic Design Nederlandse verpakkingsgids 1950

Titel: Nederlandse verpakkingsgids / onder red. van K. Sanders
Medewerker: K. Sanders fl.1950
Organisatie: Instituut Industriële Vormgeving
Jaar: 1950
Uitgever: ['s-Gravenhage] : Instituut Industriële vormgeving
Annotatie: Uitg. van het Instituut industriële vormgeving
Omvang: XIX, 68 p. : ill. ; 29 cm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGzayR0SQ6U

Dutch Graphic Design Nederlandse verpakkingsgids 1950

Titel: Nederlandse verpakkingsgids / onder red. van K. Sanders
Medewerker: K. Sanders fl.1950
Organisatie: Instituut Industriële Vormgeving
Jaar: 1950
Uitgever: ['s-Gravenhage] : Instituut Industriële vormgeving
Annotatie: Uitg. van het Instituut industriële vormgeving
Omvang: XIX, 68 p. : ill. ; 29 cm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGzayR0SQ6U

Cor Jaring & Amsterdam in the Sixties

Jaring, Cor.

Dit hap-hap-happens in Amsterdam

Amsterdam, De Arbeiderspers, 1966. 8vo. Unpaged. Text by Henk J.Meijer, illustrated throughout with reproductions of Jaring's photographs of the sixties happenings in Amsterdam. Original wrappers. First edition.

AMSTERDAM IN THE SIXTIES

Happenings

It is 1964. Amsterdam. The world out there is divided in two kinds of people; the Pleiners (a nickname like squarers) – in the name of Leidseplein, at which ‘the port of call’ for writers, artists and poets Eylders pub – and the Dijkers (the ‘Dike’ men). It is a world Cor feels at home. He meets people who are different. Trendsetter and pacesetter definitely is Robert Jasper Grootveld. He is the self-pronounced Smoke Magician, known from his own proverb ‘a content smoker is no troublemaker’. He established his Smoke Temple in 1963.Cor’s newly found friends from the square and others find a kind of shelter in the shape of a small house Cor’s father makes available. Among the merry, spiritual bunch are – well known in the Netherlands – Frans de Boer Lichtveld, Johnny van Doorn (Johnny the Selfkicker) Joop Bielemans, Marijke Koger, Simon Posthuma, Betty van Garrel, and Theo Niemeyer.Cor takes his first picture of Robert Jasper Grootveld, the moment he performs as ‘anti-smoke magician’ at the statue Lieverdje (the nickname the provocative Provo people gave to the statue they respected as their icon). Cor missed the 1st Provo Happening ‘Open the Grave, but he is present at ‘Stoned in the Streets’. It is open air theatre acting we talk about. Playful, humourous, and full of phantasy. In the following years the so-called happenings changed: the emerging of Provo group and its manifestations slightly acquire a political atmosphere.

Provo

All encompassing: enveloping the whole world, including people from all walks of life. Even the rabble is to play their role as disapproving critics feeling fooled. ‘Sour faces’, who can be ‘turned’ to thinking differently through Happenings and friendly stimulants, in order to make the world a better and nicer place. One big playgarden, so to speak. There is nothing unhuman to Provo, so trendsetters and leaders emerge, such as Roel van Duyn, Rob Stolk, Peter Bronkhorst, Luud Schimmelpenninck and Hans Tuynman. Provo becomes a movement, grows and virtually bursts from the seams. The establishment beckons, and Provo represents itself in the municipal council. In order to control ‘the end’ itself, Provo was laid as foundling in the Vondelpark in the rouring infamous 60. That happened when freedom of speech was about to be organised by the establishment, wanting to set up a ‘speakers corner’.

Expertise

Expertise and know-how gained in life and absorbed at various places will never be lost. Well-known men in Amsterdam Kees Hoekert, Theo Klei and Max Reneman saw to a follow-up of Provo issues stated in the so-called Witte Plannen (White Plans) in 1968. They established the fact that ‘there are few butterflies left’, and drew up the Insect Sect. Robert Jasper Grootveld helps out again. The Butterfly Opera came about, and plans are developed to deal with the problem of dog’s droppings, and the pollution of the Amsterdam canals. Kees Hoekert built floating flotillas. The Deskundologisch Laboratorium (laboratory of expertise) was established, which took quite a number of initiatives, using the mission statement ‘everything which needs common sense and does not boggle the mind’. In short: Provo created a heritage, which formed the base for the environmental movement of later years.

Flower Power

Nobody has ever doubted is: Amsterdam is the Magic Centre (of the universe). Trendsetter Robert Jasper Grootveld promoted the image of ‘the content smoker is no troublemaker’. In the sixties the advise was taken to heart by countless so-called hippies, who ‘nestle themselves as a ‘flock of happiness seekers’ in the Magic Centre, and under the Vondelpark trees in particular. The feeling of freedom fills the air like a sweet perfume for society. The civil society picks up the idea and invents the slogan ‘tell it with flowers’ (in the typical Dutch sense of let your heart talk by giving a bunch of flowers).

Protest

Protest without violence, but centainly against violence. The anti-Vietnam campaigns are outlet of the dissatisfied men, who call Johnson a Murderer. Again it is Robert Jasper Grootveld who shows his ability to solve problems and fight poverty. He does that symbolically at the Lievertje statue by "exchanging our prosperity for sand from developing countries and provoke a multi-national moving house, as a cultural exchange avant-la-lettre". Protest without violence, but centainly against violence. The anti-Vietnam campaigns are outlet of the dissatisfied men, who call Johnson a Murderer. Again it is Robert Jasper Grootveld who shows his ability to solve problems and fight poverty. He does that symbolically at the Lievertje statue by "exchanging our prosperity for sand from developing countries and provoke a multi-national moving house, as a cultural exchange avant-la-lettre". In Amsterdam the proverbial house is on fire when building constructor Jan Weggelaar dies, not through violence as rumour has it, but because of a heart-attack. This comes out in the open later, but the damage is already done. Only briefly tracks of rage and destruction are seen in the city. The atmosphere is grim.

Squatters

It becomes more and more grim everywhere. The so-called White Housing-plan started with the ‘occupation’ of an empty cinema, which offered shelter for the plenty. Later the plan involves neglected premises of shady landlords. The Magic Centre attracts countless visitors from abroad, and the Vondelpark does not provide a starry night every night. Large building being structurally empty for speculative reasons are discovered. Squatters turn these places upside-down. It provokes other things to happen: some become aware how to get a sound thrashing. It is the way downhill from ideological squatting to ideal or common ‘living for free’. Later a bizar form emerge: that of the organised anti-squatter occupation of houses. It is 1964. Amsterdam. The world out there is divided in two kinds of people; the Pleiners (a nickname like squarers) – in the name of Leidseplein, at which ‘the port of call’ for writers, artists and poets Eylders pub – and the Dijkers (the ‘Dike’ men).

Cor Jaring & Amsterdam in the Sixties

Jaring, Cor.

Dit hap-hap-happens in Amsterdam

Amsterdam, De Arbeiderspers, 1966. 8vo. Unpaged. Text by Henk J.Meijer, illustrated throughout with reproductions of Jaring's photographs of the sixties happenings in Amsterdam. Original wrappers. First edition.

AMSTERDAM IN THE SIXTIES

Happenings

It is 1964. Amsterdam. The world out there is divided in two kinds of people; the Pleiners (a nickname like squarers) – in the name of Leidseplein, at which ‘the port of call’ for writers, artists and poets Eylders pub – and the Dijkers (the ‘Dike’ men). It is a world Cor feels at home. He meets people who are different. Trendsetter and pacesetter definitely is Robert Jasper Grootveld. He is the self-pronounced Smoke Magician, known from his own proverb ‘a content smoker is no troublemaker’. He established his Smoke Temple in 1963.Cor’s newly found friends from the square and others find a kind of shelter in the shape of a small house Cor’s father makes available. Among the merry, spiritual bunch are – well known in the Netherlands – Frans de Boer Lichtveld, Johnny van Doorn (Johnny the Selfkicker) Joop Bielemans, Marijke Koger, Simon Posthuma, Betty van Garrel, and Theo Niemeyer.Cor takes his first picture of Robert Jasper Grootveld, the moment he performs as ‘anti-smoke magician’ at the statue Lieverdje (the nickname the provocative Provo people gave to the statue they respected as their icon). Cor missed the 1st Provo Happening ‘Open the Grave, but he is present at ‘Stoned in the Streets’. It is open air theatre acting we talk about. Playful, humourous, and full of phantasy. In the following years the so-called happenings changed: the emerging of Provo group and its manifestations slightly acquire a political atmosphere.

Provo

All encompassing: enveloping the whole world, including people from all walks of life. Even the rabble is to play their role as disapproving critics feeling fooled. ‘Sour faces’, who can be ‘turned’ to thinking differently through Happenings and friendly stimulants, in order to make the world a better and nicer place. One big playgarden, so to speak. There is nothing unhuman to Provo, so trendsetters and leaders emerge, such as Roel van Duyn, Rob Stolk, Peter Bronkhorst, Luud Schimmelpenninck and Hans Tuynman. Provo becomes a movement, grows and virtually bursts from the seams. The establishment beckons, and Provo represents itself in the municipal council. In order to control ‘the end’ itself, Provo was laid as foundling in the Vondelpark in the rouring infamous 60. That happened when freedom of speech was about to be organised by the establishment, wanting to set up a ‘speakers corner’.

Expertise

Expertise and know-how gained in life and absorbed at various places will never be lost. Well-known men in Amsterdam Kees Hoekert, Theo Klei and Max Reneman saw to a follow-up of Provo issues stated in the so-called Witte Plannen (White Plans) in 1968. They established the fact that ‘there are few butterflies left’, and drew up the Insect Sect. Robert Jasper Grootveld helps out again. The Butterfly Opera came about, and plans are developed to deal with the problem of dog’s droppings, and the pollution of the Amsterdam canals. Kees Hoekert built floating flotillas. The Deskundologisch Laboratorium (laboratory of expertise) was established, which took quite a number of initiatives, using the mission statement ‘everything which needs common sense and does not boggle the mind’. In short: Provo created a heritage, which formed the base for the environmental movement of later years.

Flower Power

Nobody has ever doubted is: Amsterdam is the Magic Centre (of the universe). Trendsetter Robert Jasper Grootveld promoted the image of ‘the content smoker is no troublemaker’. In the sixties the advise was taken to heart by countless so-called hippies, who ‘nestle themselves as a ‘flock of happiness seekers’ in the Magic Centre, and under the Vondelpark trees in particular. The feeling of freedom fills the air like a sweet perfume for society. The civil society picks up the idea and invents the slogan ‘tell it with flowers’ (in the typical Dutch sense of let your heart talk by giving a bunch of flowers).

Protest

Protest without violence, but centainly against violence. The anti-Vietnam campaigns are outlet of the dissatisfied men, who call Johnson a Murderer. Again it is Robert Jasper Grootveld who shows his ability to solve problems and fight poverty. He does that symbolically at the Lievertje statue by "exchanging our prosperity for sand from developing countries and provoke a multi-national moving house, as a cultural exchange avant-la-lettre". Protest without violence, but centainly against violence. The anti-Vietnam campaigns are outlet of the dissatisfied men, who call Johnson a Murderer. Again it is Robert Jasper Grootveld who shows his ability to solve problems and fight poverty. He does that symbolically at the Lievertje statue by "exchanging our prosperity for sand from developing countries and provoke a multi-national moving house, as a cultural exchange avant-la-lettre". In Amsterdam the proverbial house is on fire when building constructor Jan Weggelaar dies, not through violence as rumour has it, but because of a heart-attack. This comes out in the open later, but the damage is already done. Only briefly tracks of rage and destruction are seen in the city. The atmosphere is grim.

Squatters

It becomes more and more grim everywhere. The so-called White Housing-plan started with the ‘occupation’ of an empty cinema, which offered shelter for the plenty. Later the plan involves neglected premises of shady landlords. The Magic Centre attracts countless visitors from abroad, and the Vondelpark does not provide a starry night every night. Large building being structurally empty for speculative reasons are discovered. Squatters turn these places upside-down. It provokes other things to happen: some become aware how to get a sound thrashing. It is the way downhill from ideological squatting to ideal or common ‘living for free’. Later a bizar form emerge: that of the organised anti-squatter occupation of houses. It is 1964. Amsterdam. The world out there is divided in two kinds of people; the Pleiners (a nickname like squarers) – in the name of Leidseplein, at which ‘the port of call’ for writers, artists and poets Eylders pub – and the Dijkers (the ‘Dike’ men).

Ed van der Elsken & Amsterdam in the Sixties

As far as the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies are concerned, Ed van der Elsken was one of the great documentary photographers. An exuberant chronicler of his times, van der Elsken's unrestrained passion for life translated into a rapacious, experimental photography. Enormously respected in his native Holland, van der Elsken is little known in Britain (certainly in comparison to American contemporaries such as William Klein or Robert Frank, with whom he is often compared), and this survey exhibition of his work in photography and film, gives the opportunity to appraise his pivotal position between pre-war street photographers such as Weegee and Brassai, and the emotive, ultra-subjectivist photography of Nan Goldin and Larry Clark, that came after him.
Ed van der Elsken moved to Paris in 1950, joining many young Dutch artists and intellectuals seeking respite from the gloomy aftermath of the war in Amsterdam. Love on the Left Bank (1956), created during this period, remains his most celebrated work and the one which secured his reputation in the early 1950s. A noir novel-in-images, it follows a circle of drifting post-war youth, young people whose lives, and ideals, have been devastated by the war. Leading a nocturnal, aimless existence punctuated by drink, drugs and sex, van der Elsken's free spirits personify the restless hedonism, and the nihilistic spirit that was to animate the French New Wave. Most memorable amongst his subjects is the gorgeous, vampiric, opium-addicted Vali Myers, a girl who didn't see daylight for three years. During this time van der Elsken was friends with Karel Appel and Cobra emigrés, as well as leading figures in the emergent Lettrist movement and the Situationist International, and found himself in a cultural milieu where the mood was at once desperately melancholic and defiantly anarchistic.
Returning to Amsterdam in 1954, van der Elsken started to experiment with colour photography, and to pioneer a cinema-vérité style of film-making (even inventing his own portable movie camera), in order to produce the most immediate, most unmediated imagery possible. The exhibition includes excerpts from several seminal films: The Infatuated Camera (1971) and A Photographer Films Amsterdam, (1982), among others. He began to travel extensively - around the world in 1959, and then regularly visited Japan, Hong Kong and Africa. He was one of the first photographers to realise that the photography book was a very specific medium with its own unique possibilities, and Sweet Life, (1966) the book which emerged from his first global tour, is still an extraordinarily innovative publication.
As the decades pass, the mood in van der Elsken's photography shifts from post-war despondency to the permissive optimism of the flowerpower era, back to a sense of tainted idealism post-Woodstock. Van der Elsken was always in one sense an outsider drawn to outsiders. Fiercely anti-capitalist, equally anti-communist, he was never an ideologue. His signature images of rebellious youth - whether Dutch rockers or Japanese 'yakuza'(gangsters) - are driven by a sense of personal identification and celebration, rather than social protest. Unusually for a documentary photographer there is rarely any pretense of neutrality or detached observation: he is always, himself, emotionally and dramatically present in his photographs. Sometimes gentle and romantic, sometimes shrill, vulgar, even obscene, van der Elsken is invariably uncompromising and direct in his approach. And never more so than Bye, (1990) his final, valedictory film which chronicles his slow decay from prostate cancer. He died on 28 December, 1990.
Kate Bush

Ed van der Elsken : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeySHtFEMSI

Asia Maior & Photography of the Dutch East Indies

Nederlands-Indië in foto's, 1860-1940

Photography in the Dutch East Indies


The commercial photographers who started working in the Dutch East Indies from 1845 led a nomadic existence. They would set up a studio in a large town or hotel or at the home of an acquaintance, advertise in the local paper and take a photograph of anybody who had money to spare for that purpose. After a couple of weeks or months when the market had become saturated, they moved on to the next town. Among these pioneers were the two young Englishmen Walter Bentley Woodbury and James Page. From 1857 to 1908 Woodbury & Page was a leading firm in the photography sector in the Dutch East Indies.

Primarily, the commercial photographers took portraits of people, more particularly of prominent individuals. In addition, they sold topographic photos, i.e. pictures of important buildings, streets, volcanoes or agricultural enterprises. Pictures of the various population types in the colony also formed part of their repertoire. The topographic photos were chiefly sold as ‘souvenirs’.

During the last decades of the nineteenth century, the photographers’ wanderings came to an end. At that time, every large town had one or more permanently established photographers. The Surabayan photographers Onnes Kurkdjian and Herman Salzwedel and the Javan, Kassian Cephas (who worked in Yogyakarta) were famous names at the time.

The heyday of commercial photography was over by the beginning of the twentieth century and the role it played in forming an image of the Dutch East Indies diminished noticeably. There were two reasons for this. The introduction of the picture postcard brought an end to the market for topographic photos. And then, thanks to the many technical improvements, photography had essentially become the domain of amateurs: now everybody could make his or her own ‘souvenirs’.

Make a sentimental journey with the Willem Ruys of the Royal Rotterdam Lloyd to the Dutch East Indies : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBqIEJlAecU

Walter B. Woodbury
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Walter Bentley Woodbury (26 June 1834 to 5 September 1885) was an inventor and pioneering British photographer. He was one of the earliest photographers in Australia and the Dutch East Indies (now part of Indonesia). He also patented numerous inventions relating to various aspects of photography, his best known innovation being the Woodburytype photomechanical process.

Early years
Walter B. Woodbury was born in Manchester, England on 26 June 1834.[1] As a student of a civil engineer in Manchester, he constructed his own camera obscuras from cigar boxes and eyeglass lenses.[2]
In 1851 Woodbury, who had already become a professional photographer, went to Australia and soon found work in the engineering department of the Melbourne waterworks. He photographed the construction of ducts and other waterworks as well as various buildings in Melbourne. He received a medal for is photography in 1854.[3]
At some point in the mid-1850s Woodbury met expatriate British photographer James Page. In 1857 the two left Melbourne and moved to Batavia (now Jakarta), Dutch East Indies, arriving 18 May 1857, and established the partnership of Woodbury & Page that same year.[4]

In Java

During most of 1858 Woodbury & Page photographed in Central and East Java, producing large views of the ruined temples near Surakarta, amongst other subjects, before 1 September of that year[5]. After their tour of Java, by 8 December 1858 Woodbury and Page had returned to Batavia[6].
In 1859 Woodbury returned to England to arrange a regular supplier of photographic materials for his photographic studio and he contracted the London firm Negretti and Zambra to market Woodbury & Page photographs in England[7].
Woodbury returned to Java in 1860 and during most of that year travelled with Page through Central and West Java along with Walter's brother, Henry James Woodbury (born 1836 – died 1873), who had arrived in Batavia in April 1859[8].
On 18 March 1861 Woodbury & Page moved to new premises, also in Batavia, and the studio was renamed Photographisch Atelier van Walter Woodbury, also known as Atelier Woodbury. The firm sold portraits, views of Java, stereographs, cameras, lenses, photographic chemicals and other photographic supplies. These premises continued to be used by the firm until 1908, when it was dissolved[9].

Return to England

In late January or early February 1863, Woodbury left Java to return to England, because of ill health.[10]
Having returned to England, Woodbury invented the Woodburytype photomechanical reproduction process, which he patented in 1864.[11] Between 1864 and 1885 Woodbury took out more than 30 patents in Britain and abroad for inventions relating to balloon photography, transparencies, sensitized films and improvements in optical lanterns and stereoscopy.[12] In addition to his inventions, Woodbury produced photographs documenting London's poor.[13]
In 1865 his Woodburytype process was bought by the Photo Relief Company, then bought by the Woodbury Permanent Photographic Printing Company and then bought by a succession of other companies in Britain and elsewhere.[14]
Walter B. Woodbury died on 5 September 1885.[15]
In his career Woodbury produced topographic, ethnographic and especially portrait photographs. He photographed in Australia, Java, Sumatra, Borneo and London.[16] Although individual photographers were rarely identified on Woodbury & Page photographs, between 1861 and 1862 Walter B. Woodbury occasionally stamped the mounts of his photographs: "Photographed by Walter Woodbury, Java".[17]

Notes
^ Anglo-American Name Authority File.
^ Auer and Auer.
^ Auer and Auer; Browne and Partnow, 676-677.
^ Merrillees, 256, 258. Bloom gives the date of their arrival in Batavia as the Fall of 1856 (Bloom, 29).
^ Merrillees, 256.
^ Merrillees, 256-257.
^ Bloom, 29.
^ Merrillees, 258,
^ Merrillees, 258-260.
^ Merrillees, 260; Ovenden, 35. Bloom gives the date of his return as 1862 (Bloom, 30), Auer and Auer give the date as 1864.
^ Ovenden, 216; Rosenblum, 198; Bloom, 30. Auer and Auer give the date 1866.
^ Auer and Auer; Browne and Partnow, 677.
^ Browne and Partnow, 677.
^ Auer and Auer.
^ Merrillees, 260.
^ Edwards, 581; Merrillees, 260; Browne and Partnow, 677.
^ Merrillees, 260

References
Anglo-American Name Authority File, s.v. "Woodbury, Walter B. (Walter Bentley), 1834-1885", LC Control Number no 2003087165. Accessed 20 May 2004.
Auer, Michèle, and Michel Auer. Encyclopédie internationale des photographes de 1839 à nos jours/Photographers Encyclopaedia International 1839 to the Present (Hermance: Editions Camera Obscura, 1985).
Bloom, John. "Woodbury and Page: Photographers of the Old Order". In Toward Independence: A Century of Indonesia Photographed (San Francisco: The Friends of Photography, 1991), 29-30.
Browne, Turner, and Elaine Partnow. Macmillan Biographical Encyclopedia of Photographic Artists & Innovators (New York: Macmillan, 1983), 676-677.
Canadian Centre for Architecture; Collections Online, s.v. "Woodbury, Walter B.". Accessed 28 September 2006.
Edwards, Gary. International Guide to Nineteenth-Century Photographers and Their Works (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1988), 581-582.
Gernsheim, Helmut. The Rise of Photography: 1850-1880: The Age of Collodion (London: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1988), 263-264.
Leo Haks, Indonesian Art & Photography, s.v. "Woodbury & Page". Accessed 28 September 2006.
Merrillees, Scott. Batavia in Nineteenth Century Photographs (Richmond, England: Curzon Press, 2000), 256-260.
Ovenden, Richard. John Thomson (1837-1921): Photographer (Edinburgh: National Library of Scotland, The Stationary Office, 1997), 35-36, 216.
Rosenblum, Naomi. A World History of Photography (New York: Abbeville Press, 1984), 34, 197-198.
Union List of Artist Names, s.v. "Woodbury, Walter Bentley". Accessed 28 September 2006.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_B._Woodbury"