Pieter Vandermeer

New York

April 30 - June 11, 2023

Bookpresentation
Sunday May 14, 16.00 hrs

End of the 1980's Dutch photographer Pieter Vandermeer visits a couple of times New York. He walks tirelessly through the somewhat 'rougher' neighbourhoods, looks around in amazement and strikes up conversations. He is open and shows interest and in this way he gets 352 New Yorkers in front of his camera, of all ages, colors and backgrounds, a unique series of portraits. They often radiate vitality and self-awareness.
Vandermeer works with a 'legendary' Polaroid Land camera. He gives the polariod photo directly to his model. He keeps the negative safe in a bag with a water tank. He invented and built that bag himself: extremely practical and experimental. In this way he is gaining local fame and is called 'The Polaroid Man"
The polaroid negatives end up on a shelf in a cupboard at home. They stay there for a long time due to all kinds of circumstances. When archiving, they reappeared. Photos from the pre-digital era, of a timeless quality.

Galerie VIVID is proud to show a selection of these New York 'polaroids' and will also launch a book about this unique series.
In this exhibition you also find a selection of other portraits from this important photographer.

Pieter Vandermeer (1940) was closely involved as a photographer with the International Film Festival Rotterdam and Poetry International, also in Rotterdam, for more than 30 years. He put countless well-known and not so well-known actors, writers and film directors on the record. His photo archive still contains a wealth of unique work and represents great cultural value.