[Eva Besnyö] Een luchtkasteel?
No place (Amsterdam), printed by N.V. Verenigde Drukkerij Dico for Emma Kinderziekenhuis, n.d. (ca. 1950), (24) p., with 20 photographic illustrations by Eva Brusse Besnyö and typography by her husband Wim Brusse, several other illustrations, original spiralbound wrapper by Brandt en Zoon, 25.5 x 22 cm. Wrapper slightly foxed but else in remarkably good condition, including the bound-along payment card. Fine and rare brochure photo book, only two copies in PiCarta (UvA and Rijksmuseum). By means of this brochure, Emma Kinderziekenhuis drew attention to its highly outdated buildings, in order to collect funds for new buildings.
Zonder plaats (Amsterdam), gedrukt door N.V. Verenigde Drukkerij Dico voor het Emma Kinderziekenhuis, z.d. (ca. 1950), (24) p., met 20 fotografische illustraties van Eva Brusse Besnyö en typografie van haar man Wim Brusse, enkele andere illustraties, oorspronkelijk spiraalgebonden omslag door Brandt en Zoon, 25,5 x 22 cm.
Omslag wat roestvlekkig maar overigens in opvallend goede staat, met de meegebonden machtigingskaart nog aanwezig. Fraaie en zeldzame brochure fotoboek, slechts twee exemplaren in PiCarta (UvA en Rijksmuseum). Het Emma Kinderziekenhuis vroeg met deze brochure aandacht voor de sterk verouderde gebouwen, om een bouwfonds bij elkaar te krijgen voor nieuwbouw.
once commented succinctly on his work as follows: 'They get what they ask for, but I deliver damn good work' - the very thing that makes industrial photography books so attractive. The books show work from a period during which photographers could not make a living as artists/photographers and depended on such prestigious commissions. With this highly professional approach, photographers like Violette Cornelius Violette Cornelius and Ata Kando: Hungarian Refugees 1956, Cas Oorthuys 75 Jaar Bouwen, Van ambacht tot industrie 1889-1964, Ed van der Elsken , Ad Windig Het water - Schoonheid van ons land and Paul Huf established their reputations and influenced our present-day impression of workers and entrepreneurs in the postwar Netherlands. Experimental poets and well-known writers also contributed to these books, fifty of which are on show. 'Het bedrijfsfotoboek 1945-1965. Professionalisering van fotografen in het moderne Nederland' Het Bedrijfsfotoboek 1945-1965 . 
This exhibition focuses on the meaning and significance of photobooks concerning health care environments. Heart-rending, intimate stories on matters of life, sickness, death and personal loss, are observed and experienced by consecutive generations of photographers working in the documentary tradition. Martien Coppens (1908-1986), Koos Breukel (1962), Carel van Hees (1954), Rince de Jong (1970), Roy Villevoye (1960), and Albert van Westing (1960) unveil various aspects of the everyday lives of their friends and family, as well as people in their professional environment who suffer from a severe illness or find themselves facing grim adversity. The photographers record how these people, some of whom are very dear to them, try to deal with their illness or misfortune with a need to hold on to memories of a happier past, and to understand their slow deterioration and the bewilderment that comes with it. There is often a great sense of urgency: the clock is ticking.
The world of the loved one, the patient, is turned upside down. Suddenly, life is built around medical care and attempts to find a new sense of meaning and purpose. A new dimension is added to the concept of ‘home’: ‘home’ is no longer a safe and protected place, and consequently the patient no longer experiences it as such. ‘Home’ turns into a health care environment. Simultaneously, a different kind of reality suddenly becomes of vital importance close to home: the care facility. That turns into a new ‘home’ of sorts, in the shape of a transitory location of controlled care and attention. The hospital, the nursing home, the mental institution; they are like hotels – a temporary accommodation, often born out of necessity, sometimes unwanted; a place to meet fellow sufferers. The photographer infringes upon that environment; he/she considers the ‘home away from home’ his/her work environment.
The core of the exhibition is shaped by photobooks published by and on the Dutch public health care. In addition, photobooks on consumer driven health care and loss within one’s domestic circle and circle of friends are put on view, self-published by modern day photographers. Those publications are considered to be an extension of the genre. Within the genre, photobooks since post-war reconstruction constitute a category of their own.
After World War II photographers recorded their fascination of the harsh reality of human suffering in a number of photobooks. Each of the 25 photobooks selected for this exhibition represents a photographer’s strategy regarding the documentation of medical and personal care in public and private space, then and now. Not only do they show the progression of personal tragedy; they also display the development of care environments in The Netherlands, and the birth of a genre in documentary photography. In this exhibition you will find visual narratives on academic hospitals by the first generation of photographers to work in a tradition of humanist photography and who were members of the Dutch photographer’s guild (GKf). Among them are Eva Besnyö (1910-2003) and Ad Windig (1912-1996). Photobooks that were published after the Second World War are composed around the verb ‘to live’. Moralistic and patronizing in tone they speak of nursing and nurturing in a confined workplace; mental bewilderment and daily care; a ‘day in the life’ of a patient in a care environment that tries to mimic a home life. These publications subsequently make way for self-published and digitally produced book projects. The personal involvement reflected in those projects is domestic and local in nature, focused on the photographer’s own environment and family. Books on display by contemporary author-photographers like Linda-Maria Birbeck (1974), Annelies Goedhart (1979) and Jaap Scheeren (1979) reveal that approach.
Photobooks are selected that were groundbreaking in their day and in the way they depict the socially, often highly sensitive, themes of health care in text and images. Further, the books stand out for their technical execution, layout and way of photographic storytelling. In sum, this exhibition is about commissioners, photographers, graphic designers and graphic industry that have played an important role in the history of photography and graphic design.
Emma Kinderziekenhuis
Een lange rij moeders zit op houten banken te wachten tot ze aan de beurt zijn. De kinderen die ze bij zich hebben zijn van peuter- of kleuterleeftijd. Sommigen hebben ook een baby op de arm. Moeders en kinderen zijn goed gekleed, beter gezegd netjes gekleed. Dat was een hele toer in 1948, het jaar waarin de foto genomen is.
Na de oorlog
In de eerste jaren na de oorlog waren nog allerlei levensbehoeften op de bon. Wollen truien werden eindeloos uitgehaald om weer nieuwe van te breien. Moeders naaiden hun eigen jurken en maakten zelf kleding voor de kinderen. Er was nog niet zoveel te koop. Maar de wederopbouw was begonnen. Er werd weer gezorgd.
Emma Kinderziekenhuis
Het Emma Kinderziekenhuis werd in 1865 gesticht door dr. S. de Ranitz, een bevlogen arts die bijzonder begaan was met zijn patiëntjes uit de verpauperde achterbuurten van de binnenstad. Het kinderziekenhuis was toen nog gevestigd aan de Oudezijds Achterburgwal. In 1872 verhuisde het ziekenhuis naar de Saphatistraat, waar de foto genomen is. Waarschijnlijk wachten deze kinderen op een gezondheidskeuring door de kinderarts, of op een vaccinatie. Later zouden dergelijke voorzieningen ter bevordering van de gezondheid van baby's en kinderen terecht komen bij de consultatiebureaus van de GG&GD.
Eva Besnyö (1910-2003) werd geboren in Boedapest, maar leefde sinds 1932 in Nederland. Voor de oorlog maakte ze veel portretten. Ook had ze belangstelling voor architectuurfotografie. In het begin van de jaren zeventig legde ze veel acties vast van de feministische groep Dolle Mina. Maar wat ze ook fotografeerde, het had altijd sfeer, zelfs deze wachtkamer. Haar archief wordt beheerd door het Maria Austria Instituut, net als het Stadsarchief gevestigd in gebouw De Bazel.
