Guide to Unique Photography

Crisis has always and will always play an important role within the photographic genre. Photography will and must reflect upon the present state of the world. Photographers’ will always seek to tell the story and expose the crises that often lie on the fringes of society.

The concepts ‘crisis’ and ‘photography’ immediately make me think of the way in which a number of famous photographers portrayed the 1930s in the United States. The role of the American government and the obstinacy of several considerable talents were crucial in this. But first, a story from my own family’s history.

Vincent van den Wijngaard was on Wall Street on December 8. He came across a mob of angry former investors who had lost everything after the crash. They were loudly demanding that action be taken against hi-roller Wall Street brokers. This photo was taken right after the protest against the Federal Reserve on the steps of The Federal Hall - opposite Wall Street, New York City, December 2008.

Most of you will know Augusto Pinochet as the ex-general and former dictator of Chile. He was not a pleasant person, to say the least, but what tends to be forgotten is that Pinochet also brought a form of stability to Chile.

Everyone in the Netherlands knows his photos. They are published almost daily in one of the Netherlands’ major newspapers, De Volkskrant, or otherwise in one of the other leading papers. Joost van den Broek (1967) is a socially engaged photographer who does not shy away from difficult topics.

Dorothea Lange enjoyed a long career as an influential documentary photographer, but her artistic reputation was established in the short period 1935-1939. During that time Lange was a photographer for the US Farm Security Administration (FSA).

Otto Snoek is known as a photographer who notices the scenes that others tend to miss. He has a knack for capturing the human nuances that manifest themselves in gesture, stance and behaviour. The moneyed amongst us couldn’t escape Otto’s keen eye either and, if the recent worldwide Millionaire Fair is anything to go by, there doesn’t seem to be any shortage of the well heeled just yet. Otto captured the ‘crisis’, from Amsterdam to Moscow.

Robert Frank (Zurich, 1924) moved to the US shortly after the Second World War in 1947. After being awarded the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 1955 he decided to travel through the States. Frank photographed the inhabitants of the ‘land of dreams’ over a period of two years. It was a curious time for the country. America was waging a cold war in the name of the west against the communists of Eastern Europe who were under the rule of the Soviet Union. It was also a country plagued by widespread racism and uncertain of how to deal with the consumer society it had created. A story of a super power struggling with itself.

From 1979 to 1990, Margaret Thatcher was Britain’s Conservative prime-minister. An advocate of the privatisation of state-owned industries and utilities, trade union restrictions and reduced social expenditure across the board, her initial impact on Britain was economic. At an excessive cost, as many felt.

In the past Ruud Sies (1957) had a successful career as a concept developer and art director. Having directed an advertising agency for about 20 years, he decided to devote himself entirely to photography again. The agency and house were sold, the leased cars returned and he, his wife Hanneke and their two kids moved to the United States of America for a year.

According to the experts, Western Europeans who are not in debt and do not own any real estate or shares need not be overly concerned about the economic crisis. First year students from The Dutch Royal Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague were given the assignment to find people who are personally affected by the crisis, take their portrait and conduct a brief interview with them. From a total of 15 submissions here are the six best…

Since the 1990’s, Sander Veeneman (1962) has been creating a photographic series portraying the poeple who struggle to survive on a daily basis. He produces more than just pretty publications. “With a tool such as a camera at your disposal, a tool that has the power to influence and is so easy to use in a discerning way, why wouldn’t you use it?” Veeneman has travelled the world extensively, all the while taking photographs of the many children growing up in the midst of poverty, hunger and poor health. ‘