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Mariëtte Haveman (compilation), Frits Gierstberg, Mariëtte Haveman, Paul van de Laar, Loek Kreukels (authors) Black Smoke Design: Mart. Warmerdam, Paperback, sewn., illustrated (colour and b/w), 168 pages, size: 26 x 20 cm NAi Publishers in cooperation with The National Institute for Photography in the Netherlands
Few subjects have lent themselves so convincingly to the photographic medium as the universe of miners, mountains of coal and its transport. This book shows the visual virtuosity that the coal mines in Germany and the Netherlands have inspired. The unique, sometimes bizarre yet sometimes sublime beauty that this subject offers in photographic terms is manifest in work by photographers such as Nico Jesse, Chargesheimer, Fritz Fenzl, Frits Rotgans, Cas Oorthuys, Dolf Toussaint and Albert Renger Patzsch. What makes these photos so distinctive is an exceptional intensity, which draws its force from contrasts: black against white, man and factory, the traditional agricultural landscape and industrial progress. The importance of this subject in Dutch photography remains largely unexplored, at least not in its full length and breadth. The wealth of visual material in this publication is accompanied by short biographic sketches of the leading photographers. The photographic and cultural-historical background is outlined in three essays. First of all there is a wide-ranging essay by Mariëtte Haveman, the book's compiler, which considers the relations between photography and the history of coal. In addition, there is an essay by Paul van der Laar about the economic history of German-Dutch trade relations specific to the coal industry and an essay by Loek Kreukels comparing the social histories of Dutch and German mining areas. |
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Until the 1960s, coal dominated life in Germany and the Netherlands in a way that the next generation could hardly imagine. Coal was everywhere: below ground, on waterways, in the air, in the home - and thus, of course, in photography.
