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http://www.nationalgeographic.com/publications (accessed May
20, 2005).PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE
NETHERLANDS
Photography is seen and practiced as a flexible
medium by most photographers in the Netherlands.
Long a center of innovative design, architecture,
and art education, photography’s various usages
in the Netherlands have created a heterogeneous
field, wherein little importance on aesthetic purism
is placed. During the 1970s, throughout most of
Europe, only occasionally would interesting exhibi-
tions of photography be presented to the general
public that would arouse and sustain interest in the
medium as reflective of the spirit of our time and
that illustrated photography’s unique value.
In the Netherlands, only the Prentenkabinet of
the University of Leiden had a relatively good
collection of Dutch photography and a small num-
ber of important photographs from abroad.
Besides this, few art connoisseurs and a very small
percentage of the Dutch population knew about
photography and photographers of their own
countries and of other countries. Galleries seldom
held photography exhibitions, and museums had
only a few important shows. Of the prewar era,
only Paul Citroen, Paul Schuitema, Piet Zwart,
Jan Kamman, and Ed van der Elsken were inter-
nationally known.
In the early 1970s, there was an infusion of new
energy into photography. The situation rapidly
changed with the opening of two photo galleries in
Amsterdam in 1974: first the Canon Photo Gallery
and one month later, Gallery Fiolet. As a conse-
quence, the Stedelijk Museum and the Rijksmu-
seum in Amsterdam became more interested and
started to collect photographs and regularly orga-
nize photo exhibitions. All these activities, together
with the interest of the press, helped to bring a new
awareness of photography to the public.
Another important aspect is that, today, photo-
graphic equipment (analogue and digital) lies
within everyone’s reach and the step to a start in
photography has become much smaller. Young
people can try more easily to photograph and are
more likely to present the results to qualified peo-
ple who might give them the chance to exhibit what
they are doing, how they are doing it, and to out-
line the dimensions of their exploration.
The photographers with a humanistic vision in
the 1950s were Ed van der Elsken, Dolf Toussant,
Dolf Kruger, and Violette Cornelius. They stimu-
lated a group of ‘‘people photographers’’ as Sem
Presser, Kryn Taconis, Cas Oorthuys, Eva Besnyo ̈,
Maria Austria, Aart Klein, Emmy Andriesse, Carel
Blazer, Charles Breijer, and Ad Windig. In the
1960s, photographers such as Sanne Sannes and
Gerard Fieret started a new concept with the
dynamic use of the camera to create strong black-
and-white pictures.
In the present situation of photography in world
culture, more and more individual and organized
activities are taking place. With an increase in
books, catalogues, magazines, and printed matter,
the Dutch museums of contemporary art have
demonstrated great interest in this medium, giving
to it a place of primary importance by holding sev-
eral important one man shows and historical exhibi-
tions, thus closing a gap of several years of almost
complete inertia. They started several new initiatives
in the 1990s: Nederlands Fotoarchief (1989), het
Nederlands Fotogenootschap (1991), het Neder-NETHERLANDS, PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE