Dutch photographers and photobooks

It is generally accepted that when it comes to photography and making photobooks nobody does it better than the Dutch. When in Amsterdam in November  I talked to photographer and photo-educator Corinne Noordenbos about some Dutch photobooks that particularly impressed her. Here are just a few of the works.

Niels Stomps / 83 days of Darkness - Every winter between 11 November and 2 February the sun fails to rise above the slopes of the Alps leaving the North Italian village of Viganella completely in shadow during this period of the year. This village which is situated at the end of a narrow valley beside an 80-kilo meter road that extends to the Swiss Alps is suffering from an exodus of its population. Only the Center of town is left inhabited.
Therefore a large computer-operated mirror has been erected some 500 meters up the slope above the village just to reflect the sunlight onto the village for some seven hours a day.
In the mountain regions old laws have always reigned relations between man and nature. But now it is man that wants to prevail over it all. Working the hardest rocks or climbing the highest heights
More of Neils Stomps work HERE

Pieter van den Boogert / What We Wear - The global clothes market in three chapters, including the production in Bangladesh, the consumption in the Netherlands and the reuse of worn clothes in Ghana. This trilogy can be seen as a visual example of how western wealth and trendy consumption cannot be seen separately from poor working conditions and global market mechanisms.
More of Pieter van den Boogert's work HERE

Judith van IJken / Mimicry - Walking around in the New York neighbourhood of Williamsburg, I kept thinking I saw my father going past. Not the way he looks now, but as I know him from old photos. Nothing but young guys with great mops of black curls, moustaches and beards, 1980s-style training tops, tight jeans and often on racing bikes. Guys who looked like their fathers did in the 1980s.
In the first instance I saw this as a matter of fashion, the ‘retro’ trend that seems to move in parallel with my generation. When I gave it some more thought, I realised that this everyday phenomenon raises interesting questions about the age we live in. Questions such as: “Why is it that this generation would want to look like its parents?”, “What does that say about our time?”, “What is the relationship between these generations?” and “What has happened in the meantime?”
More of Judith van IJken's work HERE

Henk Wildschut / Shelter - In the vicinity of the port of Calais there is an area of a few hundred square meters known as the "jungle". The inhabitants of this area have traveled many miles to come here and still their journey is not finished. Calais is the starting point for the last and most popular crossing. Thousands have come from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and nigeria in search of a better life in england, the destination of their dreams. Not that they are welcome, as illegal immigrants are banned and excluded. While waiting for a chance to make the long crossing they build makeshift shelters: tent-like structures of waste materials found in the immediate vicinity of the camp.
More of Henk Wildschut's work HERE 

Raimond Wouda / School - Between 2002 and 2007 I photographed in a large number of secondary schools in the Netherlands, both in the provinces and the Randstad conurbation. I consciously avoided photographing in classes and focused instead on places in which pupils relax between lessons and are able to be themselves. During breaks these areas rapidly fill up with dozens of pupils. I have depicted these clusters of young people from high vantage points: I placed a camera on a tripod high on a ladder and remained on the ground where I took pictures by remote control at specific moments. These pictures show groups of pupils huddled together and throw contemporary Dutch youth in a completely new light. Interaction between individuals, formation of groups, clothing and hairstyles: everything is captured in a single picture. Apart from providing a unique snapshot of a particular period, the series offers a sociological survey of young Holland in a modern variation on the traditional Dutch militia corps portrait.
More of Raimond Wouda's work HERE 

Anouk Kruithof / Happy Birthday to You - From January to March 2011 the photographs in this book were made at a psychiatric institution, Altrecht in Den Dolder in the Netherlands. Ten patients were interviewed about their wishes for their birthday and in accordance with those wishes Anouk Kruithof organised and celebrated these birthdays with them.
More of Anouk Kruithof's work HERE