Vintage large format color negatives from The Netherlands

Photo Americain / Who are we' is a photo project by documentary photographer Ernst Lalleman.

The aim of this project is to return these sixty-year-old lost portraits to the persons portrayed, their families or loved ones. By now, the persons portrayed in 51 photographs have been identified.

Until 24 April 2022, there is an exhibition in the Fotomuseum Den Haag where the entire collection will be on display.

Ernst Lalleman did image research on three of the people identified in the collection, the resulting documentary photography is also on display, as well as archive material from the Foto Americain studio.

Order the 160-page book of the exhibition here.

The collection is a time capsule of The Hague in 1959/60.

It is portrait art that is now both art and society history as well as documentary photography. It breathes reconstruction, it shows the changing composition of the population, fashion, pets etcetera.

The world we now live in, where our world view is largely formed by what we are shown in (moving) images; The photos of photo Americain / Who are we are real, real people who exist or whose families still exist and who can be addressed and whose stories can be told.

The people portrayed are not objects from the parallel world of make-believe mentioned above, but real people among whom we can now search in 2021 whether there is a photo of ourselves or of a family member, friend or acquaintance.

Ernst Lalleman

Mobile: +34 633 428 010

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