Museum Hopping in Den Haag

Back in January I purchased a Museum Card that would get me into a number of dutch museums across the country for free. I've only used it a few times, so one overcast afternoon I snuck away from responsibilities to wander Den Haag and visit the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. It had a bunch of wonderful exhibits by dutch artists such as Jan Toorop, Karal Appel and Klimt, as well as an informative and beautiful exhibit on Delftware. I love wandering through museums, looking up close at the details of the artwork to see the individual brushstrokes of the creation. However, my favorite part of the whole museum was the beautiful design of the museum itself. The designers used beautifully bright accent walls to highlight the artwork and the layout itself was like a maze, making it fun and engaging to wander through rooms and stumble across masterpieces.

Next stop was the Fotomuseum Den Haag, which had a fascinating exhibit by dutch photographer Robin de Puy. She spent six weeks riding her dad’s motorcycle across the United States with the intent on photographing portraits. Her goal was to escape the pressures of public expectations and shoot for herself again after years of success in the dutch photography industry. She took off with only her digital medium format camera and whatever fit in her two saddlebags. In the back of the exhibit was a documentary of her experience and I really connected with a lot of her feelings throughout the trip. In the beginning she was insecure, nervous, and fearful that she wouldn’t accomplish her goal. She just wanted to lay in her hotel room and not have to put herself out there, but knew she wanted to capture these portraits so she forced herself to meet people. Some of her stories about the folks she met were so touching, and she definitely found some interesting characters along the way. As the trip came to an end she didn't want to leave and was scared that she would feel trapped again in her busy schedule. 

My only critique was that after seeing the videos and the personalities of some of the people she met, I wish she had captured more of their personalities instead of a certain “look” of the portraits. I feel like she wanted to capture the poverty and despair of their lives, but in the video they seemed really friendly and happy. However, the portraits she did take were gorgeous - I just love to capture the real, genuine emotions of the people I photograph. 

“ Fear tells you to run away, but it doesn’t tell you which way to run.” - Robin de Puy