Family Tree
Ringel Goslinga
Foam presents the new Foam_3h exhibition: ‘Family Tree’ by Ringel Goslinga. With this personal series of 96 black-and-white portraits of people from his immediate and wider circle Goslinga has created his own family tree.
Ringel Goslinga photographed three personal series of portraits of people from his father’s circle, his mother’s and his own. By presenting these in the form of a family tree he highlights structures that have formed through family ties and friendships, as well as more or less coincidental relationships that have resulted from social structures. In addition to friends and relations for example, Goslinga’s family tree includes a portrait of his childhood dentist.
For Goslinga, ‘Family Tree’ is ‘an autobiography using the possibilities of photography’. Even though Goslinga does not appear in the series itself, the viewer is still able, as an outsider, to form a view of the photographer.
The portraits in ‘Family Tree’ are honest, pure, personal and imbued with a timeless elegance. Goslinga photographed his subjects in their own setting to create as natural an image as possible.
The series is in the tradition of 20th-century portrait photography. Work by one of its founders, August Sander, is currently on show at Foam, forming an interesting contrast.
Ringel Goslinga (b. 1969, Utrecht) graduated in 2002 at Amsterdam’s Fotoacademie. Grouping people through photography has become a theme in Goslinga’s work, thanks in part to his ‘Family Tree’ project. Other series by Golsinga include his portrait of Casco theatre company, and his current series of portraits of the Vriesendorp family. Goslinga is presently working as assistant to Koos Breukel.
This exhibition was made possible with the support of SBK Amsterdam.
FOAM Photography Museum
Keizersgracht 609 - Amsterdam
Opening time: Open daily from 10am to 5pm , thu/fri 10am to 9pm. Closed: jan 1th, 30 April (Queensday)
Admission: adults € 6,50 / sudents 5