Nominated for the Dutch National Portaitprize 2011

My picture of the architect Rem Koolhaas for NRC Handelsblad got nominated for the National Portraitprize 2011 organized by 'de Zilveren Camera'. The winner (of € 10.000) will be announced on January 22nd at the photography museum in the Hague. Click on the link to see the other 4 nominations.
http://www.zilverencamera.nl/nominaties/nationale-portretprijs/danielle-van-ark

Everything fell into the right hands

I am in New York the whole month of November photographing women for my project 'Everything fell into the right hands'. The Netherlands Foundation for the Visual Arts granted me a project grant to be able to do so. A couple of days ago I photographed the first one of hopefully many to come. Here is a polaroid (or actually Fuji instant film now) sneak peak.
If you're reading this and happen to know an older, well to do woman with great jewels, please get in touch with me. I will also be shooting in Miami the first week of December for this.

New image 'Transience' series

For some time now I have been strolling around cemeteries to find bouquets and flower arrangements on graves that are a couple of days old. Here the latest image I've made.

NY - Miami

I will be in New York and Miami until the 8th of December. Call my US cellphone, I most likely won't pick up my Dutch mobile, you can find the number here.

Bozar office, Brussels

Landscape stories

Read my interview about 'the Mounted Life' in Landscape stories #5 the animal issue.

http://www.landscapestories.net/interviews/danielle-van-ark?lang=en

'Bel Jardin'

Introducing: 'Bel Jardin', my latest series. In 2009 I received a grant from the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts to start working on this project. They support small art projects that focus on the city of Amsterdam. For the first time I've worked with text in my pictures, and I really like the outcome of it. It took me a while to get the right angle in this project because I didn't want to make 'just' beautiful garden pictures. The canal houses from Amsterdam have such a rich history that I started to dig in to stories of the previous owners of these buildings. And of course everybody has a story, one a bit darker than the other....

Click on the images to enlarge and read.

ps: still working on the grammar.

Unless You Will

http://www.unlessyouwill.com/ issue # 17 just came out. This online photography journal made by photographer Heidi Ramano features contemporary photography from all over.
An extended portfolio from 'the Mounted Life' is published in this issue that you can download in pdf form. Have a look, fellow Dutch photographer Henk Wildschut is also featured in this issue with his series 'Shelter'.

the news from both sides

In 2008 I was experimenting with magazine and book tears and transparency and light. I used 'News yearbooks' from the late 60's for this. One page after another showed good and bad happenings. Holding them against the light you could see two different events merging into each other. I never passed the point of experimenting but who knows, maybe one day I will pick it up again...

Friday 29th July FOAM Pop In

Come have a Friday afternoon drink with Kim Boske, Jaap Scheeren and me
on Friday July 29 at the FOAM Pop In location at the Museumplein.
From 5 - 7/ 8ish at Gabriël Metsustraat 2-6 Amsterdam

There will be live ikabana, taxidermy, cake eating contest, photobooth at your own risk dj's etc etc. Bring something to drink, but there will also be some drinks on us.

Le Squelette Joyeux - Lumiere brothers

Photofestival Rencontres D'Arles - France

lightbox in the making...

From July 4th (my birthday :-) untill July 10th, FOAM will be present at
the Photofestival Rencontres D'Arles in France.
The program they'll bring is 'What's Next', and their home base during the festival is the Bourse du Travail at 3, Rue Parmentier in Arles. It is at the same time an exhibition space, a working studio and a place to meet and debate the future of photography. They are showing a lightbox out of my latest work 'Transience'.
http://www.rencontres-arles.com/A11/Home

Rijksakademie

As from January 1st 2012 I will start a two year residency at the Rijksakademie

please sign the petition while you're reading this. Due to government support cuts this institute is in danger for future existence.
http://www.change.org/petitions/support-the-rijsakademie-secure-the-art-of-the-future?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=share_petition

flowers and sand #3

Gallery Seelevel SUMMER SHOW

I hereby invite you to come to the opening of Gallery Seelevel's SUMMERSHOW!

On view I have one new image from my latest series 'Transience'
a series on flower bouquets on fresh graves.


Summer Show | 18 juni t/m 9 juli

New, recents and classics of:
Daniëlle van Ark, Ruth van Beek, Kim Boske, Popel Coumou,
Sofie van Dam, Cassander Eeftink Schattenkerk, Eva Gjaltema,
Maarten van Schaik, Astrid Hermes, Sofie Knijff, Koen Hauser,
Annick Ligtermoet, Brígida Mendes, Ann Pettersson, Dirk Kome,
Diana Scherer, Bieke Vanhoutte, Esther Zitman

Opening: 18 juni 17.00 uur

Summer Show
Tentoonstelling: 18 juni t/m 9 juli
Locatie: Tweede Kostverlorenkade 69 1053 SB Amsterdam
Openingstijden: don - zat van 13.00 – 17.00 uur en op afspraak

Battles live at Paris's Hotel de Ville (City Hall) right up my alley, both...

Battles | Wall Street | A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Introducing my new work: 'Transience'

flowers and sand # 02 - 2011

flowers and sand #01 - 2011

On view at FOAM Pop-in Museumplein Amsterdam untill August 2011

Opening May 12 FOAM Pop-in

This Thursday, FOAM will open her doors at a temporary location, an old bank, at the Museumplein in Amsterdam.
Together with photographers Kim Boske, Sanne Pepers, Elza Jo, Jaap Scheeren, Yvonne Lacet, Anne Schwalbe and Marnix Goossens, I will present BRAND NEW work called 'Transience'. We are filling up the old workspaces with pictures and installations in individual shows.
Stop by for the opening party, May 12 between 7 and 9 or from Thursday till Sunday at Gabriël Metsustraat 2 - 6 Amsterdam.

Peter Galassi to retire from the MOMA

After 30 years of working at the MOMA in New York, Peter Galassi, chief curator of the Department of Photography is calling it a day as from July of this year. Luckily he said yes to my request to photograph his office in September of last year for my series 'Sorry for the mess'.

Vali Meyers / Ed van der Elsken

When Ed van der Elsken lived in Paris between 1950 and 1954, he met Vali Meyers and a group of bohemians. He started to photographing them, which led to the book 'Een liefdesgeschiedenis in Saint Germain des Prés'. They had a short affair at the time. Later in 1972 they met again and van der Elsken made a movie about her called 'Death in the Port Jackson Hotel'.
Meyers, a dancer, artist and tattoo artist was connected to the likes of Salvado Dali, Tennesse Williams and Jean Cocteau amongst many others.
She died in Australia in 2003 after a short battle with cancer at the age of 72.

http://www.valimyers.com/

images of Vali:
http://www.brixpicks.com/vali-meyers-a-9273.html#more-9273

interview with Patti Smith in Vanity Fair talking how she came across Ed van der Elskens' work and Vali Meyers.
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/04/love-on-the-left-bank-patti-smith-201104#intro

On vimeo in 3 parts:
Vali: The Witch of Positano
http://vimeo.com/10105457

a writer who draws....

I came across Austin Kleon's website and instantly became a fan.

Especially this post I like a lot:
http://www.austinkleon.com/2011/03/30/how-to-steal-like-an-artist-and-9-other-things-nobody-told-me/

Looking for new members for the Color Darkroom Collective

Amsterdam / Holland based analogue printing photographers; the Color Darkroom Collective is looking for new members to join. Get in touch, click on the flyer for more information.

Old Hollywood

Publicity still for Hitchcock's 'the Birds' taken by Philippe Halsman.

This image is coming from http://oldhollywood.tumblr.com/ a website with a crazy big collection of old movie stills. A great place to find out about classic movies as well.

RIP Elizabeth Taylor

For a long time I have a fascination for this woman, not only for the great movies she's made, but probably more for her obsession with diamonds and jewelry. Richard Burton purchased a 69.42 carat diamond for her for $ 1.1 million in 1968, making it the world's most expensive diamond at the time. The diamond being renamed the Taylor-Burton diamond was sold in 1979 again to help finance her then husband John Warner's senatorial candidacy. The diamond was sold for $ 3.3 million. the NY Times published 'Elizabeth Taylor, Lifelong Screen Star, Dies at 79' today.

NRC Handelsblad column

Kees Moeliker, writer and curator of the Rotterdam Natural History Museum devoted his column in NRC Handelsblad (Dutch newspaper) today to the royal otter I've acquired at the Sotheby's auction.

It's all about an otter these days....

Today I've learned that the otter I've purchased at the Sotheby's royal auction, is not mounted by just a taxidermist. I've brought the otter to Jac Bouten today, to get him fixed up a little, and they freaked out that it was 'a H.H ter Meer' piece. Famous taxidermist and sculpture artist (1871 - 1934). I've found a piece of an article (in Dutch) and I was just in awe about this piece. Unfortunately it was only half of the article, and now I'm on a hunt to find the rest....
http://www.scribd.com/doc/51241011/EGM-19200101-0031

WE GOT THE OTTER!!!

Dear people,

Through a really spontaneous guerilla crowdfunding action on Facebook, Twitter and an announcement on this blog, I was able to purchase our former Queen Juliana (or her mother Queen Emma's) stuffed albino otter, stuffed in 1906. I had 39 backers collected in only a day and a half!!!!!
I will pick it up somewhere tomorrow and will be transparent about in an outcome also on this blog. I will get in touch with all the backers how to go from here tomorrow or Thursday. Hopefully this action will inspire more people to do, not to thought out, spontaneous, funny actions like this. Without the help this otter would have been somewhere else, probably not so much appreciated but most of all not so much at the right place!

There is already media interest by the way, Kees Moeliker columnist from NRC Handelsblad and conservator of the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam saw the Twitter posts and got in touch with me to dedicate this story to his column, keep you eye open for the Saturday issue of this paper.

Regards,
Daniëlle

HELP WANTED

GUERILLA CROWDFUNDING:
Help me buy our former queen Juliana's stuffed albino otter from the Sotheby's auction on Tuesday the 15th of March.
Are you in for € 6, a pack of postcards from 'the Mounted Life', € 10, picture from the series 'What's the big deal anyway' 13 x 16 cm edition 666. € 50 a picture of the actual otter shot by me. 20 x 25 cm edition in the amount of backers............I am deadly serious............

Without help I can go up to € 200. No cure no pay. email me: danielle@daniellevanark.com

And last but not least is there for me to mention that the result of Sotheby's auction of the estate of Queen Juliana and Queen Emma (or at least a small part of it) is going to charity, which one is not made public yet.

http://www.sothebys.com/app/ecatalogue/fhtml/index.jsp?event_id=30328#/r=index-fhtml.jsp?event_id=30328|r.main=lot.jsp?event_id=30328&id=337/

the New Yorker Photobooth

Today an image from the series 'For Art's Sake' is featured on the Photobooth section of the New Yorker magazine website.
Put together by the photo editors of the magazine and mostly linked to a happening event of the moment.
Because it is art fair weekend in NYC, editor Jessie Wender was looking for some art (looking) related images.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/2011/03/looking-at-art.html

Eva Braun's personal photo album

'Life' shows an album on their website containing personal pictures of Eva Braun, her lover, the dogs, friends and other relatives. The pictures are very nostalgic and beautiful, and also very well composed. All made during WWII you can't help looking at these images and thinking what was going on during the pressing of the shutter button.

http://www.life.com/image/109852765/in-gallery/57511#index/0

Museum night Rotterdam at SARATIMTRUST

Rotterdamse Museumnacht

Saturday March 5
location: Saratimtrust
Mauritsstraat 167
Rotterdam
08.00 - 02.00 am

curated by: Miktor & Molf + Femke Dekker

10 x 010 = 020

40 artists based in Amsterdam exhibit one or a couple of pieces of work
in a good old fashioned Salon exhibition. Work by Experimental Jetset, Parra,
Rafael Rozendaal, Wayne Horse, yours truly and many others.

Frozen Fountain

Design furniture store the Frozen Fountain in Amsterdam has a long history of exhibitions from emerging artists, whether it's photography or painting or design. From today you can visit the store, when you go buy some Piet Hein Eek cabinets or Hella Jongerius ceramics and see brand new work from 'the Mounted Life' on the wall, which is also, for sale.

Tokyo Frontline Art Fair

Tokyo February 17 -20 Frontline Art Fair
Foam Editions and FOAM magazine have a beautiful booth there.
Work from 'the Mounted Life' is up for view and sale (left wall in the back).
Today is the last chance to go there.



http://www.tokyofrontline.jp/en_message.html

AUCTION Christie's / Huis Marseille February 12, 2010 Amsterdam

Invitation to join the auction from the Huis Marseille exhibition (Digital?)Analogue!
84 pictures by 65 acclaimed photographers are being auctioned by auction house Christie's to benefit AAP photolab.
On Saturday February 12th between 4 and 6 at Felix Meritis in Amsterdam.

click on the link to see all work and information:
http://www.huismarseille.nl/nl/nieuws/veiling

If you won't be able to attend the auction, there is a possibility fill in an absentee bid form.

NOWNESS

Today I have a feature on the website Nowness. Never before shown or published new material from 'the Mounted Life' is shown here. As a big fan of this LVMH owned website I am happy that they thought the work is great.
http://www.nowness.com/day/2010/12/14

Experimental Jetset - Logo

A few years ago already, Experimental Jetset, a graphic design studio based in Amsterdam designed my name/logo. They are the original designers of the most ripped of t shirt ever! I think it is really cool and I am really proud of it. The Dutch pronunciation makes me put an umlout on the e. They gave it an extra subtle dot that represents the holes in 35 mm film. How great is that?!

Ikono platform Brussels, December 5th 2010

Ikono, a platform for photography has a busy schedule the first week of December.
The launch of View magazine # 18, an opening by Noor images
and on the 5th of December there will be a projection series of work
of about 30 photographers. Starts at 5 pm with a projection show of the
Noor photographers.
'the Mounted Life' will be shown around 6.30

http://www.ikono.be/projections

(digital?)ANALOGUE! exhibition Huis Marseille, Amsterdam

group exhibition on the analogue photography lab AAP

with; Rineke Dijkstra, Dana Lixenberg, Liza May Post, Jacqueline Hassink, Charlott Markus and about 60 other photographers.

Digital? Analogue!

Opening Saturday the 27th of November
Huis Marseille Amsterdam from 5-7pm
27 nov. 2010 - 27 feb. 2011

http://www.huismarseille.nl/en/exhibition/digital-analogue

Destroyed evidence Daegu Photobiennial

Today I've received these images in my inbox. Sad but awesome at the same time. The pictures I had up at the Photobiennial in Korea were printed over in Korea and we came to the agree that they would be destroyed after the show because they do not belong to the edition and were not printed under my supervision.

Photo Off - Paris

November 18 - 21 FOAM Editions will be present at the Photo Off
'the young and upcoming photographers art fair'
go check out their booth when you're around.
http://www.photooff.com/en_images.html

Toko at her home in LA for Subbacultcha