ScherpteDiepte

Changing Amsterdam : A city photographed by Jacobus van Eck, c. 1917-19401

Hans Rooseboom

Jacobus van Eck (1973-1946) is mainly known as the private collector of Amsterdam topographic views (prints, drawings, maps, and some paintings). His collection also includes photographs made from c. 1880 onwards that can be considered their photographic counterparts. His main interest was the 19th century in which the outskirts of the Dutch capital quickly and radically changed as the population doubled between 1850 and 1900. As the old town – within the 17th-century walls – could no longer house this surplus, Amsterdam started developing the surroundings that had never been used systematically for building houses and other buildings. Van Eck had known these rural areas as a child and saw them change with some sense of nostalgia. However, he managed in not being overwhelmed by sadness and dislike of all things new and modern. Especially after he started making photographs himself in 1917 he not only depicted what was disappearing but also gave attention to the newly built quarters. This article explores for the first time the scope, meaning and ambitions of Van Eck’s own photographs and analyses what they add to much better and wider known photographs of Amsterdam, especially those made by Jacob Olie, George Hendrik Breitner, and Bernard Eilers. Published and unpublished documents give an insight into what Van Eck’s intentions were and how his photographs are to be seen.

Archival, Vernacular and Multi-reproduced Images: Photography in the Work of Jef Geys

Liesbeth Decan

From his debut in 1958 onwards, Belgian artist Jef Geys (b. 1939) worked with photography. This makes him an absolute pioneer within the Belgian art world—immediately followed by Jacques Charlier and Marcel Broodthaers, who from their debut in the early 1960s also made photo-based art. Throughout Geys’s multimedia practice photography takes a prominent place: not only in the number of works that involve photographs but also in the establishment of his archive, which is a fundamental component of his work. In addition, what makes Jef Geys an interesting case is that his idiosyncratic oeuvre spans the whole period in which photography became an autonomous medium within the domain of contemporary art in Belgium—a state that was finally achieved in the early 1990s. This article provides a first selective overview of Geys’s photo-based work and shows how his specific use of the medium corresponds with the basic principles on which his oeuvre is built.

Heavy metal beats ‘greyer sky’. Interpretations of The Netherlands by foreign photographers 1890-19301

Mattie Boom

In 19th century ‘the picturesque’ became a real topic in photography of Dutch scenery, landscape and old cities. In recent years Dutch institutions have been adding more photographs by foreign photographers to their collections. The quest for beauty and the depiction of vast landscapes first turned into ways to express the sensation of photographing outdoors, and thus the atmosphere of the scene: ‘All is cold and grey for it is early spring and last year’s grass is only a shade deeper than the sand, which stretches hillock beyond hillock until they meet the greyer sky…’, James Craig Annan wrote while visiting the Netherlands. Pictorialists Alfred Stieglitz, Heinrich Kühn, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Robert Demachy and many others were to follow in his footsteps. This article re-examines the early interpretations, and observes crucial changes in the first decades of the 20th century, when modernism took its final turn.

Early Advertising Photography in Belgium and the Netherlands: a Preliminary Overview

Steven F. Joseph

A whole class of photographs, including some of the most inventive imagery of the nineteenth century, was thrown away almost as soon as it was created. Advertising photography, although recognized from the beginnings of the medium as a potential revenue-earner by many professional photographers, was little regarded at the time and taken for granted by the business community that commissioned the work. Consequently, very little has survived, except for some trade and auction catalogues illustrated with photographs. Despite the paucity of original artefacts, a preliminary overview is attempted, by means of examples drawn from a wide range of products and services and in a variety of formats (from small insert cards to full-plate display prints). These examples are of Dutch or Belgian origin, whenever readily at hand, and are otherwise drawn from neighbouring countries. Photographers applied some of their most imaginative designs to advertise their own goods and services. The origins of the fascinating relationship between commerce and its reproducible image, from simple visual statements to complex branding, are worthy of further research.