Fotowerk, Fotoworks
Exhibition at the Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam
For: Bas Vroege, Stichting Perspektief, Beurs van Berlage





















































een overzichtstentoonstelling van 27 Nederlandse fotografieprojecten gemaakt in opdracht.

De beurs van berlage is uitgelicht als een donkere kamer.
De indrukwekkende architectuur blijft zichtbaar, geen foto is te zien. In de ruimte van 1600m2 staan 27 kamers van verschillend formaat. Samen vormen zij een stad, de plaats waar deze fotografie projecten thuis horen.
Boven elke deur hangt een rood doka-peertje dat zegt:
attentie! “fotograaf aan het werk” !

A retrospective of 27 Dutch photography commissions.
The Beurs van Berlage, an impressive ’Amsterdam School’ style monument that formerly housed the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, bathes in red light like photographers darkroom. In the main hall 27 rooms are built in different sizes. Together they form a city. The city where these projects live. Above each entrance a sign is lit: ’Photographer at work’.

The Beurs van Berlage is a building on the Damrak, in the center of Amsterdam. It was designed as a commodity exchange by architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage and constructed between 1896 and 1903. It influenced many modernist architects, in particular functionalists and the Amsterdam School. It is now used as a conference venue.
The building is constructed of red brick, with an iron and glass roof and stone piers, lintels and corbels. Its entrance is under a large clock tower, while inside lie three large multi-story halls formerly used as trading floors, with offices and communal facilities grouped around them.
The aim of the architect was to reject the styles of the past. To the modern eye, the design may still appear a little fussy, but at the time, most apparent were its sweeping planes and open plan interiors. It has stylistic similarities with some earlier buildings, for instance St Pancras station, but there the functional train shed was disguised by a neo-Gothic facade.