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11/5/2001

East Wind West Wind

Nederlands Foto Instituut, Rotterdam

Bertien van Manen’s most recent photo project at NFI

'East Wind West Wind' is the title of the latest photo project by Bertien van Manen, which will receive its Dutch premiere in both book and exhibition form at the Nederlands Foto Instituut on Saturday, May 12. During the 1990s Van Manen acquired an international reputation as one of the most important innovators in documentary photography. Fascinated by the current changes in the cities and villages of China, Van Manen travelled to China 14 times in the period from July, 1997, through May, 2000. There she made a personal reportage on Chinese life, changing under Western influence. The book 'East Wind West Wind' (Dfl. 89,50), with 110 colour photographs, is going to be a worthy successor to Van Manen's successful book on life in the former Soviet Union, 'A Hundred Summers A Hundred Winters' (1995, 2nd edition). The exhibition at the NFI will run from May 13 till June 24.

In her characteristically subtle and sensitive manner, Bertien van Manen has produced a personal reportage on China. Van Manen herself calls China ‘a world of contradictions’: a mingling of urban and rural culture, Eastern and Western culture, against a communist background, all taking place at great speed. Van Manen visited the big cities in the east, west and south of China, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, and Chongqing, Chengdu and Kunming, but also villages in the countryside and in the mountains not far from Tibet. The villages are intriguing for their still ‘medieval’, traditional Chinese way of life, in which, at the same time, something of a Western influence is visible. Because these changes are most visible precisely among the youth, Van Manen turned her camera on this group. She worked with a small, fully automatic camera so as not to be too present as a photographer, but also because she felt that today's China could not be reconciled with the sort of sharp, distinct, shrieking forms and colours which, according to her, would be suitable for Japan. Just as in 'A Hundred Summers A Hundred Winters', Van Manen did not begin her work with any predetermined plan, but responded to what she encountered, in details of the environment, objects and people.

At the beginning of her career, Bertien van Manen (The Hague) worked as a fashion photographer. In 1977, however, she expanded her expertise into the field of documentary photography. Examples of her projects are the series 'Vrouwen te Gast', 1979, on migrant women in Amsterdam, 'The Appalachians', 1987 and 1998, on mine workers and their families in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky, U.S.A., and the previously mentioned 'A Hundred Summers A Hundred Winters', from the early 1990s. Since this trail-blazing book Van Manen has been internationally recognized as one of the important innovators in documentary photography in the 1990s. Her photography is based on personal experiences, human contact, a colourful form of poetic realism and the dynamic use of the SLR camera.

The last time that the NFI showed work by Van Manen was during the Foto Biënnale Rotterdam 2000, when a retrospective of her work was to be seen in the La s Palmas building, the future home of the International Centre for Visual Culture. A selection from her series Men, on the men in her life, is part of the NFI travelling exhibition 'Conditions humaines, portraits intimes'.

Lectures by Bertien van Manen
The NFI organizes a program on Tuesday June 5th, with among others a lecture by Bertien van Manen about her project 'East Wind West Wind'. (Information: NFI, +31 10 213 20 11, info@nfi.nl ) On the last day of the exhibition Sunday June 24, 2001, Van Manen will deliver this lecture also at the NFI at 4 p.m. (cost Dfl 5,- (payable at the door)

The exhibition 'East Wind West Wind' was realised in cooperation with Bas Vroege (Paradox) and will, after its showing at the NFI, be a part of a retrospective on Bertien van Manen to the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, USA.

The book 'East Wind West Wind', with introductory text by Ian Buruma (240 pages, 110 photographs, full colour, ISBN 90-74159-36-2) is published by: Uitgeverij De Verbeelding, Amsterdam. Price: HFl. 89,50. Also for sale at the NFI.

Nederlands Foto Instituut is open from Tuesday till Sunday, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Witte de Withstraat 63, Rotterdam, +31 (0)10 213 20 11

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