 |
Bert Nienhuis, Bruiloft, Amstelveen, 1987.In the 1980s, at the request of the Jewish Historical Museum, he took photos documenting Jewish life in Holland.
|
|
|
AMSTERDAM (EJP)---The Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam will present the first major survey of the work of world- renowned Dutch photographer Bert Nienhuis.
This exhibition, from 22 December 2008 to 22 March 2009, will feature a selection of portraits and documentary photos taken by Nienhuis between 1972 and 2008.
A versatile and highly accomplished photographer, Bert Nienhuis produced an impressive body of work over the past decades.
Since 1975, as the staff photographer for weekly magazine Vrij Nederland, he has photographed countless Dutch and foreign politicians, artists, and thinkers, and his portraits now form a historical archive of inestimable value.
Nienhuis has often been described as the best portrait photographer in Holland because of his unaffected style, his creative approach to mise-en-scène, and a sharp eye for subtle but telling details.
He was an engaged photographer, capturing changes in Dutch society in his photo reportages on employment, immigration and other timely topics.
Through long and detailed study of the daily lives of ordinary people – an unusual working method in those days – he revitalized photojournalism. His subjects ranged from life on a campsite, or mass tourism on Mallorca, to the orthodox Calvinist fishing community on the Dutch island of Urk, or the emergence of a multicultural society in a working-class district of The Hague.
In the 1980s, at the request of the Jewish Historical Museum, he took photos documenting Jewish life in Holland.
The exhibition will include a short film about Bert Nienhuis by the documentary filmmakers Thomas Doebele and Maarten Schmidt, which will also be broadcast on Dutch television in early 2009 by the Joodse Omroep, a Jewish broadcasting corporation.
The Jewish Historical Museum is open daily from 11 am to 5 pm. Nieuwe Amstelstraat, 1 in Amsterdam.
Image on homepage: Andy Warhol by Bert Nienhuis, 1980