Express yourself: Capturing Youth Culture and Identity through Photography in Amsterdam

This exhibition showcases the evolution of youth culture through photography, contrasting the raw energy of nightlife scenes captured by Gerard Wessel with the intimate portraits of teenagers by André Bogaerts. Spanning from 1981 to 2012, the collection offers a unique look at how young people have expressed their identities visually over three decades.

The exhibition 'Express yourself' delves into the visual language of youth culture, particularly as it emerged and evolved from the early 1980s through to the early 2010s. It highlights how photography became a crucial medium for documenting and understanding this transformation. The exhibition features the distinct styles of two Dutch photographers: Gerard Wessel, who describes himself as a 'street photographer' capturing the 'outrageous nightlife scene,' Vondelpark, and youth culture at large, often in Amsterdam, and whose work was frequently published in the magazine Nieuwe Revu. His work explores his fascination with the people around him. In contrast, André Bogaerts took a more intimate approach, creating portraits of young people, particularly students, at IVKO, the Amsterdam school where he taught photography. His series, which appeared in Vrij Nederland magazine in 1982, includes interviews with the students discussing their clothing choices and personal styles. The exhibition thus juxtaposes Wessel's broad, energetic documentation of public youth expression with Bogaerts' focused, personal studies of individual identity formation among adolescents, offering a comprehensive view of how youth culture has been represented through photography during this significant period.

Admission for adults is €22.50. Entry is free for visitors aged 18 and under, and for Friends of the museum. A start time must be booked for each visit. Payment in the museum is cashless, only by digital payment method or credit card. More practical information is available via the provided links.