Eddy's World / De Wereld van Eddy

For more than 50 years, this photographer has travelled the world, visiting over 80 countries to capture human life. His photographs have been published in newspapers and magazines such as Het Parool, De Volkskrant, Time-Life, Sphere, Avenue and Holland Herald, alongside numerous photo books compiled by himself.

As a contemporary of Ed van der Elsken and Johan van der Keuken, Eddy can be seen as one of the most important living representatives of humanist photography in the Netherlands. In the gallery, a selection of vintage prints will be shown, most of them never exhibited to the public before, combined with a recent series of landscapes.

Characteristic in the work of Posthuma de Boer is a frontal composition, often portraying his subjects in full length. The background functions as a context in which the subject can be identified, often moulding into the location. Eddy uses natural light very cleverly, generally the only kind of light that is available at the time of taking the photo. With the three components of composition, background and natural light, Eddy is able to expose his subjects in a direct manner, typified, for instance, by his photograph of a hoard of cyclists waiting to cross the street.

Selecting work for this exhibition was like a treasure hunt as Eddy’s studio is crammed with hundreds of folders containing film and magazines. According to the photographer, he can't throw anything away. 'You never know when you will need it,'  he says.

Because Posthuma de Boer has rarely held commercial exhibitions, he did not sell many of the occasional prints he made. For this exhibition, we selected some original prints and made editions of only three, apart from the vintage one. Running concurrently with this exhibition, some of his other vintage prints will be on view at Fotomuseum Den Haag.

Eddy Posthuma de Boer (1931, Amsterdam) worked after his graduation at the Fotovakschool as freelancer for numerous national and international newspapers and magazines. He was awarded the LOF-prijs (1972) and the Kees Scherer Prijs (1997). Recent exhibitions have been held in the Kunsthal, Rotterdam and Huis Marseille, Amsterdam. To date, 27 photo books have been published of his work.