At Art Rotterdam my newest work will be presented by Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen. This work was made on a foggy morning in Wassenaar and part of new series about the coastline around The Hague. For this specific work we chose for a different way of presentation. This new way of framing has been done by Frame Products. Just look at the details, pure craftsmanship.
Art Rotterdam is one of the mayor art fairs in the Netherlands. This year it will be on a new location; Rotterdam Ahoy. Opening on Thursday 27 March is by invitation only. Friday 28 March to Sunday 30 march, Opening times are from 11.00 to 19.00.
SOLO exhibition ‘Zeeland’ Amsterdam
oktober 27, 2024
After a wonderful opening my new solo exhibition ‘Zeeland’ is on show in Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen, Hazenstraat 26, Amsterdam. You can visit the gallery from Thursday to Saturday, 13.00 – 18.00. I will be there to welcome you on a wednesday 30 October, from 12.00 – 17.00. Look at my instagram page for updates of extra opening hours. You can visit the exhibition until Saturday 7 December.
About the Exhibition
It’s March 2020. The era of the coronavirus. Everyone must stay inside and only a few are allowed to go out. At that very moment Zeeland appears in sight of Jeroen Hofman. It’s an empty province and at the same time it’s aesthetic and harsh, he notices. The photographer rents a few holiday houses in the swampy province, always in different places. He takes a close look at the landscapes that slowly and almost unnoticed awake after the pandemic silence. Meanwhile, the unruly nature of what he sees intrigues him more and more. He notices contrasts everywhere: the silence of salt marshes and beaches and in the distance the industry of Terneuzen and Vlissingen. The landscapes are full of character. Wide, empty, untouched and always with tiny signs of human presence in the background. Sometimes it’s blurred and sometimes sharply defined. The Zeeland Bridge, heavy industry, windmills, Neeltje Jans and impressive churches from times long past. Landscapes with nature and tourism at an appropriate distance from each other, but intimately entwined. And always with the presence of water meandering in between everywhere.
Again and again the photographer returns to these landscapes of Zeeland, descending ever deeper into the flat land by hovering above it like a bird of prey. He starts to see more and more sharply and with ever more layers. The small differences between fog and a grey sky, between spring and summer and between a fresh westerly wind and winter freezing cold. He separates the temporal drama in a mass of clouds from the timeless state he intends to capture. He has the gaze of an old master. Just as Ruisdael chose an incidence of light, like Koninck catched a cloth field and like Vermeer took a mysterious higher position to see what we see. And all this in a composition that Mondrian might have chosen. Hofman waits, high in a cherry picker, for that one thing to happen. In the corner of his eye, it looms next to the Drowned Land of Saeftinghe with the nuclear power station of Doel, the ports of Antwerp and the Scheldt in the distance. Hofman captures Zeeland in photography and film, frozen moments, and movements in a slow procession of colours.
Booklaunch ‘Zeeland’ at Unseen Amsterdam
augustus 26, 2024
Finally we are getting there! From 19 till 22 September my upcoming book ‘Zeeland’ will be presented at Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen, at Unseen Photofair. And of course at the bookmarket at ‘Hannibal Books’ I will also do some signing sessions with Hannibal Books. I hope to see you there. Friday, 20 September, from 17.00 and Sunday 22, from 14.00.
An exceptional love letter to Zeeland
In this masterful book, photographer Jeroen Hofman revisits his childhood memories. Through his inimitable style, he manages to capture the raw beauty of Zeeland: vast nature reserves, wide empty beaches and the constant change wrought by the tides. Looking at these pictures almost makes the salt on the sea air and the scent of clay become tangible. This is the ultimate homage to the place where Hofman’s love for Zeeland began.
Whether documenting the city parks of Amsterdam and Rotterdam or the Frisian islands, I have a particular method: working from up high, standing on an elevated platform. The trouble of renting a hydraulic hoist for every shoot pays off: seen from a bird’s eye view, the architecture of the parks, or the vastness and tranquility of the islands, become clearly visible. It’s a height at which you can no longer understand what the people below are saying and the birds above you are just out of reach.
photo by Koos Breukel
For my latest project, ‘EILAND’, I visited the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. They are a popular tourist destination in the Netherlands. The islands are the perfect natural escape; a place where endless thoughts make way for endless horizons.
A few works have since been bought by private collectors and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for its embassies. Much of my commercial work is offered to me by people who have seen my personal work and want to incorporate my style or aesthetic fingerprint into their products or projects.
Jeroen Hofman (b. 1976, NL) studied photography at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. He experienced his big breakthrough with Playground (2011), a series in which he photographed emergency response training facilities in his now characteristic manner. Inspired by the work of Hans van der Meer, Edward Burtynsky, Gregory Crewdson and others, he began taking photographs from a high vantage point. Gradually, the role of the landscape became more important in his work. In Park (2018) Hofman documented communal spaces and how we share them. As well as producing autonomous work, Hofman also makes portraits. He has won several awards and prizes, including the Silver Camera twice: once for Playground and, in 2014, for a portrait of Hans van Manen.
