The Art I Love most

“Without images I would die” is a typical statement by the Dutch cinematographer, essayist and photographer Johan van der Keuken (1938-2001). Van der Keuken gained international fame with an oeuvre that expressly moves between visual poetry and documentary. In the 1950s and early 60s he produced three high-profile photo books that are now part of the Dutch photographic canon. Van der Keuken particularly drew inspiration from jazz and the experimental poetry of the “Vijftigers”, a group of Dutch poets active in the 50s. Gradually, he came to see photography as an instrument for visual research into the power of an image. Just as in his films, the mobility of the frame of the image became a symbol for his own position in relation to ‘reality’. He aspired to maintain an equally open and socially involved attitude toward different perspectives, different possibilities, different images—above all images. With this publication the Nederlands Fotomuseum presents, for thefirst time after more than twenty years, a large overview of his photographic work, which has lost none of its topicality.