For my recent Mentoring Program assignment – do a 5 shot portrait series on location (not in the studio) – I was looking for some inspiration. I decided to pay a visit to FOAM, the Photo Museum of Amsterdam. It currently runs an exhibition called Tí by photographer Koos Breukel and visual artist Roy Villevoye.
Tí is actually the name of a small village in the middle of a tropical rain forest in New Guinea. It’s a community of about 120 people who have been living there completely isolated from the rest of the world for many generations. They’re not familiar with the concept of photography, let alone portrait photography. They’re not used to the thousands of images we’re bombarded with every day in our part of the world. Therefore, they can only look natural when asked to pose. They’re not influenced in any way and also do not pretend to be someone else on the photo than they are in reality. What you see, is what you get. Portrait photography in its purest form. Some people compare these pictures by Koos Breukel and Roy Villevoye with the work of German photographer August Sander. He photographed people in the beginning of the 20th century according to self-invented categories, like women, farmers and artists. The work of both Sander and Breukel/Villevoye show the entire society with all types of people it represents. The mother, the farmer, etc.
The exhibition at FOAM runs until June 19. If you’re in a position to go, I most certainly urge you to do so. As to my personal Mentoring Program assignment I think a more accessible location closer to home is probably better. The photographs and story of Tí definitely gave me plenty of food for thought, though.
Note: this is the place where normally one or more pictures are posted that illustrate the story above. In an attempt to respect photographers copyright laws, I asked Koos Breukel and Roy Villevoye for permission to use their pictures here. However, they were not willing to co-operate because they did not feel affinity with the website and, hence, denied permission to use their work. Kind of childish behaviour, if you ask me, but you can still follow the link to FOAM above if you want see what the pictures look like.