George Hendrik Breitner - Pioneer of Street Photography

In cooperation with the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam The Kunsthal Rotterdam proudly presents a major retrospective of photographs that the Rotterdam-born photographer George Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923) took around 1900. Breitner is known primarily as an eccentric painter of cityscapes, nudes and genre studies.

This exhibition, however, shows him to be one of the most interesting photographers of his day, recording life in Amsterdam and other large cities such as Paris and Berlin in a style that was singularly personal and modern. He created many snapshot-style photographs on the streets as well as informal images of people's home life. The photographs he took were less static than the typical professional photographs of his contemporaries. Breitner digressed from standard practices and experimented with technology. He opted for extremely high or extremely low perspectives, photographed into the light and managed to portray scenes of urban vitality using deliberately blurred images.

Kunsthal Rotterdam

Kunsthal Rotterdam is an exceptional exhibition hall that houses some 25 expositions annually. The Kunsthal displays culture in the broadest sense of the word: traditional and cutting-edge art, design and photography, from elitist to popular.

Exhibitions, Tip (Things to Do), Tip (Places to Go)