Rutger ten Broeke: In Hindsight

A retrospective exhibition of the work of Dutch photographer Rutger ten Broeke. In early 2024, Ten Broeke turned eighty, the perfect moment for a tribute. The exhibition presents a versatile body of work spanning nearly 60 years. A small selection is part of the Fotomuseum Hilversum collection.

Three female curators present Ten Broeke’s photography through their own perspectives and in a new context. 'Rutger ten Broeke - In Hindsight' is a journey through space and time: a photographic exploration of personal stories and unfamiliar worlds.

With this exhibition, Fotomuseum Hilversum creates space -- through renewed looking and curating -- to explore the relationship between people and their surroundings, inviting new associations. Ten Broeke consistently places this relationship at the center of his work. He frames people and environments both inside and outside the image. This is visible in his portraits, urban and village landscapes, abstract and natural forms on a small scale, and landscapes where the presence of humans is decisive.

10,000 Portraits
The exhibition includes well-known works alongside pieces never shown before. For the first time, the series 10,000 Portraits is presented in a museum context. Ten Broeke set up his studio in numerous cities to photograph passers-by. We see carnival celebrations in Dunkirk, visitors at Museum Ludwig in Cologne, and commuters at the Amtrak Station in Chicago. With the same attention, he captured a colorfully dressed reveler, an ordinary mail carrier, or a well-known politician.

Relationship between humans and nature
Ten Broeke’s photographs of people in vast, remote natural landscapes are his most well-known. The nude figures observe and experience the landscape. With these images, the photographer searches for the moment when body and landscape become one. The result is a range of beautiful expansive landscapes or utopian scenes. With his cinematic approach, Ten Broeke continually explores the relationship between humans and nature.

'Rutger ten Broeke - In Hindsight' also highlights photographic experimentation with form and nature. For many years, Ten Broeke has photographed in and around his home in Baarlo. Here, he developed his Sequences and Vegetable Strategies.

A changing photographic landscape
Rutger ten Broeke worked as a photographer in the midst of a shifting photographic landscape, alongside contemporaries such as Bertien van Manen and Ed van der Elsken. Documentary photography grew increasingly popular, while so-called staged photography also gained traction among many Dutch photographers during the 1980s. Ten Broeke followed his own path-- early in his career as a fashion photographer for magazines such as Viva, and later with his autonomous work.