Foam Photography Museum Garden and Open Garden Days

Once a year, across the third weekend of June, Amsterdam holds its ‘Open Garden Days’ (‘Open Tuinen Dagen’). This year, thirty canal houses opened their gardens to the public from 14-16 June; some for free, with a €15 ticket valid for all three days and covering all those gardens for which there was a charge. Now, some of these gardens are in fact accessible at any time of the year, and can be experienced as part of ordinary museum visits; but others open only for this annual occasion, and it is a weekend upon which gardens en masse become the focus of attention, at a time of year when they are in bloom, looking their very best – or otherwise, depending upon your taste in seasons and in gardens.

My partner and I visited Foam photography museum on Sunday, which is currently showing an excellent retrospective of Stephen Gill, entitled ‘Best Before End’, and an engaging project by Monica Nouwens, ‘Look At Me And Tell Me If You Have Known Me Before’. Both exhibitions run until 14 July. Foam had its garden open for the weekend; and I took the following photographs.

Waits/Corbijn ’77-’11 at &Foam

In 1977, Tom Waits was three albums into his acclaimed musical career, and touring Europe in support of his fourth album, Foreign Affairs. Whilst in the Netherlands, he was photographed by a young, twenty-two year old photographer, Anton Corbijn, who had achieved some prominence through his photographs of Dutch musician Herman Brood.

Waits’ music career went on from strength to strength, broadening and deepening; through the 80s and the experimental albums Swordfishtrombones and Rain Dogs; onto Mule Variations, Blood Money and Alice in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 2011’s Bad as Me was Waits’ seventeenth studio release. Elsewhere, from 1978’s Paradise Alley, Waits has continued to make frequent appearances in film.

Corbijn meanwhile achieved greater success through his photography; and he too moved into film, shooting numerous music videos for acts including U2, Depeche Mode, and Echo & The Bunnymen; with a documentary film on Captain Beefheart for the BBC in 1994 prior to his entering the field of motion pictures with 2007’s Control, an Ian Curtis biopic. A Most Wanted Man is an upcoming thriller directed by Corbijn, starring Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Willem Dafoe.

Waits and Corbijn have combined to produce a book: clothbound; comprising 226 images, taken by Corbijn of Waits, and of Waits’ own photography. Waits/Corbijn ’77-’11 is to be published by Schirmer-Mosel, in a limited edition of 6,000, from 8 May.

This afternoon, at 6 pm, the book will premiere at &Foam – the Foam photography museum’s shop on Vijzelstraat 78. Corbijn will be present to sign copies of the book. The free-to-attend event will include exhibits of Corbijn’s photography and Waits’ art; and will feature a performance of Waits’ music by Orkater / The Sadists. More on the event is here; while this is the website for the book.

Additions to Guides to Amsterdam

I have added recently to each of the pages linked permanently above – guides, in turn, to Amsterdam’s music venues; its cinemas; and its galleries and museums.

I have introduced OT301, an experimental music venue along Overtoom, to the ‘Music Venues’ page; Cafe 16CC, De Balie, and Studio/K to ‘Cinemas’; and Amsterdam’s two prominent photography museums, plus the Rembrandthuis, to ‘Galleries and Museums’.

I’ll continue to update these guides, which contain all manner of information: both intricately useful and casually illuminating.

Books &Foam: A New Theme for the Foam Photography Shop

&Foam is the Foam photography museum’s shop, round the corner from the museum itself, at Vijzelstraat 78. It sells an extensive range of photography magazines, books, prints and other paraphernalia; and throughout the year engages in collaborations with publishers and artists to take on certain themes, represented in the layout of the store and in the range of products on sale.

The shop is set to unveil its latest theme, which will focus on photography books and their design and creation. Over the next two months &Foam will stock an especially broad selection of the latest international photo books; and there will be presentations on book design as well as book signing sessions. ‘Books &Foam’ will be launched tonight, at Vijzelstraat 78 from 5:30 pm.