Occupation Photographer Years active 1977- | Name Bertien Manen Alma mater Leiden University | |
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Born 1942 den Haag Books Let's Sit Down Before We Go | ||
Presenting let s sit down before we go by bertien van manen
Bertien van Manen (Den Haag, 1942) is a Dutch photographer who makes primarily environmental portraiture and works in the photobook format. She uses an inexpensive snapshot camera to take photos of people she meets as she feels that these cameras allow her subjects to consider "me as a tourist or friend, who liked to take pictures.” She has photographed extensively in China and the former Soviet Union. Van Manen's work has been exhibited internationally and won awards.
Contents
- Presenting let s sit down before we go by bertien van manen
- Bertien van manen pictures of pictures
- Life and work
- Publications
- Collections
- References
Bertien van manen pictures of pictures
Life and work
Van Manen grew up in a Dutch mining community in the 1950s. Her photography career began in 1977 as a fashion photographer, though only for one and a half years, after studying French language and literature at the University of Leiden.
Inspired by Robert Frank's book The Americans (1958), van Manen switched from fashion photography to a more documentary approach. She worked on commission for long running projects, such as A Hundred Summers, A Hundred Winters (1991) from the post-Soviet states, East Wind, West Wind (2001) from China, Give me your Image (2006) from Europe, Moonshine (2014) with photographs of miners in Yorkshire and the Appalachian Mountains, and Beyond Maps and Atlases (2016) from Ireland.
Publications
Collections
Van Manen's work is held in the following public collections: