Vlada in the kitchen Kazan 1992 © Bertien van Manen
FOAM - Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam Keizersgracht 609 1017 DS Amsterdam Pays-Bas
This spring Foam will present the solo exhibition Let's sit down before we go by Bertien van Manen (1942).
More than 60 photos will be on show, created between 1991 and 2009. During that time, Van Manen regularly and extensively travelled with a small 35mm camera through Russia, Moldavia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Tatarstan and Georgia. She stayed for long periods with the people she met on her travels, learned their language and usually became friends with them.
This produced intimate and sometimes tender photos resulting from a personal and sincere relationship. In Bertien van Manen's humanistic approach, photographer and subject are equals and the mutual respect is palpable.
The title of the exhibition, Let's sit down before we go, refers to an old Russian custom : before you leave on a journey, take a moment to think about where you come from, where you are going and why. This was also the case for Bertien van Manen. Since 2010, she has travelled far less due to her personal circumstances. So she took time to look back on her projects and travels. Together with English photographer Stephen Gill, she sorted through more than 15,000 negatives. She was surprised to see that time had nearly stood still: life outside the big cities seemed to have changed hardly at all in her photos.
Van Manen's photos are intimate. Take Pjotr and his family. They look relaxed standing there in the snow in their pyjamas and bare feet: posing for a photographer they have confidence in. You can see that in Pjotr's smile as well as in the two men peering from the porch in an easy way. Or look at Vlada, sitting in her kitchen, surrounded by her possessions: the teapot she's just poured from, the flowers she loves, her painting that she gazes at every day.
The personal atmosphere of the photos is reinforced by the soft, nearly flat palette of colours. Moreover, the photos are often slightly odd. What is that boy doing on top of the cabinet? And why is someone sitting in an empty cinema wearing a cap? That slight absurdity is not something Van Manen directs; it's something she just happens to encounter.
Vignette : Vlada in the kitchen Kazan 1992 © Bertien van Manen