Amsterdam, the photographer, ca. 1970-1980. 230 silver print photographs (ca. 30.0-40.0 x 9.5-14.0 cm).

A superb collection of 230 silver print photographs of Dutch urban culture in the 1970s to 1980s. This impressive collection comprises photographs of Dutch subculture, politics, carnival, circus, clowns, military, various portraits, nudes, animals, and other miscellaneous subjects. Including 16 contact sheets, one sheet with a few prints cut out. Some prints with hand-colouring, or manipulation marks. Many prints with backstamps or signed/inscribed on versos. Includes some duplicates. The vast majority of the photographs were taken by photojournalist Hans Singels, as well as some of his contemporaries including Herman Hoeneveld. Singels was born in a Japanese internment camp in North Sumatra in 1942. He served in the military on the island of Biak during 1960-1961, after which he studied at the Academie voor Industriële Vormgeving (‘Academy of Industrial Design’) in Eindhoven and the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten (‘Royal Academy of Art’) in The Hague. In the late 1960s, Singels worked as a colour advisor for a Dutch company called Sikkens, which is where he me Herman Hoeneveld, who he would befriend and begin collaborating with in later years. Singels began getting assignments as a newspaper photographer, first with leftish weekly's De Nieuwe Linie and, later, De Groene Amsterdammer. During this period Singels became interested in photographing Dutch politics and social life and turned his attention to street life, portraits, protests, and subculture. Singels developed his career and reputation as a “socially-engaged” photographer, and began exhibiting and teaching with various institutions, including positions at the KABK in The Hague, the RABK in Amsterdam, heading workshops with Fotobiennale (‘Photo Biennale’) in Enschede and at Stichting De Moor (‘De Moor Foundation’) in Amsterdam, and another workshop with ‘Amsterdam Centrum voor fotografie’ (Amsterdam Centre of Photography). Source: Harlaar, M. (2004), Han Singels.PhotoLexicon, Volume 21, nr. 36.