Guide to Unique Photography

A painting or photo to hang in your home. Nowadays people are looking at both with a buyer’s eye. The Dutch market for contemporary art photography has become mature, people are saying. But how do you go about it when you want to buy an art photo? Where should you go and what price should you pay?

The Amsterdam Olympic Stadium, worshipped, abused, but more vital then ever. Hundreds, maybe thousands of events have been held in the stadium ever since its resurrection in 1914, but never before an event with it’s sole focus on photography. Ninety-one years later it’s happening, the Holland Unique Photography Festival hosts the kick-off of an annually returning photography event. But what events preceded this festival? A photographical overview, of course...

Charlotte Dumas (Vlaardingen, 1977) is fascinated by the relationship between people and animals, if it concerns mutual trust. But also the abuse of trust. After graduating from the Rietveld Academy, in 2000, Dumas went to the Rijksacademie. There she made a series of monumental portraits of police dogs. After this, Dumas focused on police horses. Whereas police dogs are trained to give in to their instincts, the police horse is trained to suppress its instinct and go against nature. In 2003 Dumas’ work was shown in Huis Marseille at the exposition ‘First Round’, where Dumas, Marco van Duyvendijk and Gertjan Kocken were presented as promising talents.

Basic assumption in the works of Stefan is how people design and use the urban landscape. Van Weele’s photography shows a vision on the cultural, social and political influences in the landscape.

Fons Brasser, originally a graphic artist, was the first Dutch exponent of new-documentary photography in the 1980s. Frits Berends boasts a long list of work for international magazines and brands. A talk between two different photographers who also have things in common.

Maurits Giesen and Ilse Leenders are working together since the beginning of 2002. The two use eachother as models in their works. In this way they create the illusion that their work contains more then it does in reality. In general images of Giesen and Leenders show up best when blown up.

Photography has been with us for over 165 years and is more popular than ever. In 1997 around three billion rolls of film were sold world-wide. This corresponds with 67 billion photos, or more than 2700 new photos per second.

Although the festival itself has nothing to do with sports, I’m one of the few photographers that will be presenting new work with a direct connection to the location. I have been a photographer since 1991 and although I was born in Amsterdam I’ve always travelled between Uruguay and the Netherlands.

The road must be straight, lined with trees at regular intervals. A country road, which immediately reminds me of France. But it might be an entirely different place altogether, one cannot tell. The photographer must have stood on that road, with his camera aimed at the vanishing point. Although it is the middle of the day, the road disappears into pitch-black darkness.

You can hang photographs on the wall, sell them or give them away. Still, many negatives and prints remain hidden for the outside world. Tucked away in tins or shoe boxes. Because they weren’t satisfactory or you couldn’t get rid of them. “Pointless all this storage”, says photographer, filmmaker and author Jacques Meijer (Delft, 1934). His Dynamic Archive updates this hidden past.

If you search for photographs on the world wide web, you might be occupied for many hours, if not days. So think twice before you start, because the offer is gigantic. From countless photographers’ portfolios to signed fake-Newtons going for $20 on eBay.