About Madelon Hooykaas:

Amsterdam-based Else Madelon Hooykaas (b. 1942) is an internationally acclaimed photographer, video artist, and filmmaker. As one of the first generation of artists to adopt video as a medium, she is recognized as a transformative figure in video art, reshaping the boundaries of contemporary art through her pioneering approach.

While Hooykaas’ conceptual work in photography, performance, and video environments have been shown widely, her early photographic work remains largely unexplored publicly. These vintage photographs—printed by the artist herself—offer a truly unique opportunity to glimpse the genesis of Madelon Hooykaas’ artistic journey. These works, dating back to 1959 when she was just 17 years old, are a remarkable documentation of Dutch everyday life throughout the 60s and 70s. They capture scenes from Rotterdam’s harbor—a place frequently visited by the artist in her childhood and a source of great inspiration for her photography—as well as images depicting war-torn Rotterdam after the Second World War, urban life in Amsterdam and every day moments at the beach in Scheveningen.