Eddy Posthuma de Boer’s Photo Libretto – because of the joy

eddy posthuma de boer - photo libretto book cover

Photographs, as Hans Aarsman prefers them, are not taken to make a nice picture but only because they attract the photographer’s attention and because he just feels like taking a picture of them. Photo Libretto by Eddy Posthuma de Boer is full of it.

Or as Garry Winogrand said:

Photography is not about the thing photographed. It is about how that thing looks photographed.

Discovering Eddy Posthuma de Boer

I knew Eddy Posthuma de Boer primarily as the photographer who had taken the pictures in Cees Nooteboom’s travel books. His images accompanied Nooteboom’s literary wanderings through Europe and beyond, creating a visual counterpoint to the writer’s observations. But Photo Libretto revealed a different side of Posthuma de Boer, one less concerned with illustrating a narrative and more focused on pure visual discovery.

Photo Libretto was published as a photography calendar, offering one image for each day of the year. This format gives the work an intimate, daily rhythm. Rather than presenting a single coherent project, Posthuma de Boer organized his images into thematic collections that reveal his recurring fascinations and visual obsessions.

The Art of Noticing

Here and there, the images display a wit reminiscent of Elliott Erwitt: black-and-white dalmatians crossing at a zebra crossing, creating an accidental visual rhyme. An Arab who appears to be trying to fix an overturned car, fiddling with the engine with one hand, but a few meters away lies the rear axle, completely detached. A massive pile of crushed car blocks, compressed into perfect metal cubes, speaking to the lifecycle of automobiles.

The book is organized around themes, or rather, collections of related observations. There are texts on signs and storefronts with spelling mistakes – the kind of vernacular typography that most people walk past without noticing. Means of transportation appear frequently: French cars slowly rotting and becoming part of the French landscape, their rust and decay creating unintentional sculptures.

People reading newspapers make multiple appearances, caught in moments of absorption. Companies and products bearing the name Victoria form another collection, turning a simple proper name into a typological study. It’s this kind of obsessive attention to patterns that makes the work compelling.

Cees Nooteboom, photo Eddy Posthuma de Boer
Cees Nooteboom, photo Eddy Posthuma de Boer

Ordinary Things, Extraordinary Images

The most admirable pictures capture everyday things rendered without further context, producing unexpectedly remarkable images. A neat little plant table constructed entirely from Pepsi crates, a moment of folk design that could have come from an Eggleston photograph. The ingenuity of making do with what’s available, elevated through photographic attention.

Marte Röling’s Star Fighter aircraft appears, incongruous and powerful. A hotel reception desk in Marseille drowns in an overwhelming abundance of floral wallpaper and carpet patterns. Maximalist interior design that borders on the surreal. The Leaning Tower of Pisa, photographed with the camera tilted so that the tower appears straight while the surrounding world tilts askew, a visual joke that upends our expectations.

Most memorably, a hotel room features a bathtub positioned in the middle of the space, surrounded by a shower curtain like an island of privacy in an otherwise open room. Only possible in Belgium, I thought when I saw it. These are the kinds of vernacular oddities that Posthuma de Boer sought out, or simply noticed when they appeared.

The Philosophy Behind the Images

What ties these diverse images together is Posthuma de Boer’s approach to photography – taking pictures not because they’re obviously beautiful or important, but simply because something catches his eye. It’s photography driven by curiosity rather than ambition, by the pleasure of looking rather than the need to make a statement.

This connects directly to what Hans Aarsman advocates: photography as a practice of attention, of noticing what’s already there rather than constructing elaborate scenarios. It’s democratic in its gaze, finding equal interest in a damaged car, a spelling mistake, or an improvised piece of furniture.

Photo Libretto reminds us that the world is already full of remarkable images – you just need to pay attention and be ready with a camera. The joy Posthuma de Boer found in this practice comes through in every page of this calendar, making each day’s image a small gift of visual observation.

For anyone interested in Dutch photography, vernacular culture, or the art of everyday observation, Photo Libretto remains a treasure worth seeking out.

Related reading:

Happy End - photo by Posthuma de Boer

Supermoney, greed first

Reading WTF by Tim O’Reilly. A chapter about Supermoney.

The Price/Earnings ratio of Amazon is 188. That mean that for every $1 profit, there is $188 in stock value. Facebook’s is 64, Google’s 29.5. Uber’s in infinite: market capitalisation of $68 billion and zero profit.

These companies have huge investment capabilities with this Supermoney.

But, one promise broken (expectation not met) and a huge value is lost. Which is inevitable. A pyramid scheme, betting on unworldly growth expectations.

Greed first.

Tom Peters – The Pursuit of WOW!

After reading 163 Little Big Things, one more fantastic book by Tom Peters, stuffed full of illustrated advice. 

Style like a hammer. Straight forward, what I like in Peters as I do in writers like Nicholas Nassim Taleb and James Altucher. Like James Altucher, Tom Peters’ lists are lovely exhaustingly long.

The write up of the conversations in the book are not such a big attraction to me. I found them not very entertaining and I started skipping pages. (Reading mcust be fun, or I will start skipping pages or the entire book.)

Peters is very nicely unconventional. Hates pretence. Hates arrogance. Loves to talk to the people on the floor.

For a non-fiction writer he advertises fiction books wholeheartedly.

Fiction beats nonfiction. Avoid nonfiction! It’s too unrealistic. Lately I’ve reveled in Paul Bowles, Heinrich Böll, Julian Barnes, and Max Frisch, among others. Nothing conveys the richness of life in quite the same way as a great novel.

What is great Peters is not afraid to quote researchers (who) that have found the work of some organisational advisors, amongst which Peters and Waterman totally useless.

Fantastics Reading List. A freaking good book.

Do! Experimentation over analysis.

The first 99.9 percent of getting from here to there is the determination to do it and not to compromise, no matter what sort of roadblocks those around you (including peers) erect.”

What does all this add up to? It’s what I call the difference between doing something “for” the market, and being part “of” the market. “For” firms depend on data collection and manipulation, detached analysis, elaborate market plans, and planner-designer-marketers versed in the latest B-school techniques. “Of” firms seek out zany employees with out-of-the-ordinary views, nurture a spirit of adventure, cherish instinct and intuition, and dote on things that have never been tried before.

Love this one: pounding this all the time, and quoting Steve Jobs as well: “Customers do not know what they want.”
Tom Peters is a bit more elegant:

Competitive businesses must lead their customers. The prospective buyer can’t tell you what she likes until she has used it and lived with it.

Good Books.
Running a One-Person Business by Claude Whitmyer, Salli Rasberry, and Michael Phillips.

Solutions are to the point:

…understanding that the more apparently mundane-humdrum the product (or service), the better the chance that DESIGN MINDFULNESS can revolutionize it (BECAUSE MOST IDIOTS DONT GET IT)

Details matter.

“It’s the Loo, Dummy!”

Paying specialists more than managers.

“Did Moses have a secret Eleventh Commandment that said that bosses have to be paid more than the people that report to them?”

On corporate procrastination.

“A good deal of corporate planning … is like a ritual rain dance,” wrote Dartmouth’s Brian Quinn. “It has no effect on the weather that follows, but those who engage in it think it does…. Moreover, much of the advice related to corporate planning is directed at improving the dancing, not the weather.”

…

“The object of business is not to be lean and mean, not to reorganize and then re-engineer. The object of business is to invent, to grow—and add to employment over time.”

On self-organisation.

“Changing a culture of dependence to a culture of self-organizing independence is hard work. But at least what I’m reporting here suggests that it doesn’t go against the human grain.”

Self organisation has largely failed because appropriate tools are not in place. It is often a short-sighted cost cutting operation where administrative roles have been moved to the daily work of staff. I remember all the (otherwise billable) hours I spent booking a business trip. Or doing my expenses and fight the expense reimbursement teams in the Philippines (outsourced of course, with strict rules and no authorization so make decisions) to get my money back. Tools should be in place before starting self organisation.

Corporatism. Seen it in real life.

“No, I don’t envy for a moment the laid-off, 52-year-old middle manager who’s spent his entire career in the womb called IBM. My life, my house-painter friend’s life, the life of any independent contractor looms as a frightening and unnerving prospect to him.”

…

“Getting good at any damn thing takes work; getting artful takes hard, continuous work. Bikes, skates, sailboats, gardening … and computers. So don’t wait for tomorrow, hoping that the arrival of the no-brainer computer will make you a facile member of the 21st-century technology club in the space of a few minutes.”

Books and more books… A massive library of Peters’ sources.

Jobs roles forget them. Engagement is key. Also or maybe especially for roles serving internal customers. Getting to know your (internal) customers is the most important thing.

“Eliminate all job descriptions. NOW. (Today.) Destroy all organizational charts. NOW. (Today.) Have all top corporate/divisional managers pledge two days per month to customer visits (puny, really), two days per month to supplier and distributor visits. Make sure that every person in the organization makes at least two customer visits a year.”

Be always ready to change. Change. Be curious. Crazy. Naive.

“If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.” L. Wittgenstein

I Will Be Wolf – Bertien van Manen

I will be wolf - Bertien van Manen - book cover

I Will Be Wolf – Bertien van Manen’s Debut Masterpiece

Published in 1975, I Will Be Wolf marks the remarkable debut of Dutch photographer Bertien van Manen. This photobook offers an intimate glimpse into everyday life through Van Manen’s distinctive lens.

A European Answer to The Americans

Van Manen’s work in I Will Be Wolf clearly shows the influence of Robert Frank’s iconic The Americans, yet it carves out its own unique territory. Where Frank’s vision was often critical and confrontational, Van Manen approaches her subjects with warmth and gentleness. Her photographs reveal a more compassionate eye, one that observes rather than judges.

The book exudes a wonderful freshness that remains striking nearly five decades later. Van Manen’s street photography demonstrates she had studied not only Robert Frank but also William Eggleston’s groundbreaking color work. Like Eggleston, she possesses a certain shyness in her approach to photography.

The Art of Subtle Observation

What makes I Will Be Wolf particularly compelling is Van Manen’s technique of maintaining distance. Many photographs capture people from behind, often taken from afar with views deliberately obstructed by poles, window frames, and architectural elements. This aesthetic choice creates layers of meaning – the viewer becomes a quiet observer, much like the photographer herself.

This restrained approach doesn’t diminish the power of the images. Instead, it adds an layer of intimacy and authenticity. Van Manen’s subjects inhabit their own worlds, unaware or unconcerned with the camera’s presence. The result is photography that feels genuine and unforced.

Why I Will Be Wolf Matters

For collectors and students of photobooks, I Will Be Wolf represents an essential piece of Dutch photography history. It showcases Van Manen’s early vision before she went on to create celebrated works like East Wind West Wind and A Hundred Summers, A Hundred Winters.

The book demonstrates that European street photography in the 1970s could be both influenced by American masters and distinctly its own. Van Manen found her voice early, and this debut remains as relevant and engaging today as when it first appeared.

Conclusion

I Will Be Wolf is a photobook that rewards careful attention, revealing more with each viewing. For anyone interested in documentary photography, Dutch photography, or the evolution of the photobook as an art form, Bertien van Manen’s debut is essential viewing.

photo from I will be wolf - Bertien van Manen

A History of Pictures, by Hockney and Gayford

a history of pictures

In the format of a semi-dialog, David Hockney and Martin Gayford in A History of Pictures discuss the history and various aspects of  picture-making.

Beautifully illustrated.

The most interesting thing is that Hockney seems not to have a very high regard for photography.

“… I question photography. A lot of people don’t, they accept the world looks like a photograph.

“But colour photography couldn’t get tones like those [Vermeer] as is has to rely on the dyes or printing ink. Those aren’t like paint, and never will be.”

“… I don’t know whether photography is an art. Some photographers considered themselves artists, and some didn’t
… Good photography does require intelligence and imagination but a lot of it is very mechanical.”

Vermeer, Caravaggio, Degas, Delacroix, a few of the painters mentioned in the book that used photographic techniques for their paintings.

“Photography came out of painting and as far as I can see that’s where it is returning.”