Hans Eijkelboom: Good Intentions and Modern Housing. Photo Notes on an Amsterdam Suburb

Dutch photographer Hans Eijkelboom (born 1949) is fascinated by the clash between the idealistic constructions and aspirations of modernism and the harsh fact of his own living environment. In 2008 the Art Foundation of Amsterdam’s Academic Medical Center (AMC) commissioned the artist to document the Bijlmer, a district in southeast Amsterdam, which both he and the AMC call home. Eijkelboom took 12 photos every month over a period of one and a half years and displayed the steadily expanding series on a temporary wall at the AMC hospital. His photos capture the diversity of the area, telling the story of the place and the varied people who live there. This special album of photographs from the series is accompanied by an essay by art critic Hans den Hartog Jager. The publication also includes a textual collage by the photographer himself, which traces the turbulent genesis and development of the Bijlmer since the 1970s.