Lookbook Primary Research: Foam Gallery, Amsterdam

Foam is all about photography - an internationally operating organisation in the field of photography, based in Amsterdam

• Foam informs and inspires the widest possible audience by presenting all facets of contemporary photography.
• Foam frequently organises events abroad, often in close collaboration with our partners. 
• Foam is situated in the heart of the international photography community and aims to be constantly up-to-date. 
• We respond to the latest developments in photography with original yet relevant projects, and are not afraid to break with tradition and strike new paths. In this process, quality, flexibility, innovation, accessibility and entrepreneurship are core values.
• In the Amsterdam museum, Foam exhibits all facets of the photographic medium, in surprising ways and with the utmost attention to quality: from contemporary to historical work and from fine art to applied photography. World famous photographers are exhibited alongside young, emerging artists.

foam magazine

I visited foam in February when they were exhibiting work by photographer and scrapbook-er Vincent Delbrouck. His book Beyond History (subtitled) 'Poetic documentary versus dirty realism' is an odd, unsatisfying mixture of self-indulgence with really beautifully raw photographs. In this unusual photobook, part photo scrapbook and part personal journal, Vincent Delbrouck (or V.D. as he's known) turns the camera on his life and loves in the Cuban city of Havana. The book, subtitled "poetic documentary versus dirty realism" is certainly an odd mixture. Intensely personal, it combines snapshots of streets, interiors, friends and lovers, with lengthy writings, brief commentary captions and poetry in French and Spanish. The result is a weird amalgam, and it's hard to know exactly where to place it.

His collaging really stood out to me as he picked up on what linear and colour qualities stood out for each photograph, whilst using the tatty addition of words to colloquialise and define the situations. 

Outcomes:

• His use of layout amongst his photographs, combining colour and form is notable
• How different shades can work together to enhance that part of the photograph
• A great example of how photographs can be enhanced in a series when considered 
• what qualities of the series of photographs I have been given can combine and flow together well? - consider COLOUR SHAPE AND FORM
• For example; putting photograph A with photo C enhances the red in A and the blue in C - this is also useful to consider for a poster layout. In the final photo it shows how the way and sizes his photographs have been hung in the Foam gallery space, enhances the mood and scene produced as a result - warm, sandy, summery feelings are emitted despite blue being a cold colour. My job as the designer is to curate the photographs to aid their visual identity.