Corporate Culture in the Netherlands
Photographing corporate culture is no simple task. It has been described as the sum of the written and (maybe even predominantly) unwritten rules, governing the social interaction between a company's employees and regulating and shaping their contacts with third parties. The larger part of this is invisible. See for Business Etiquette and Protocol ...
Both photographers have tried to capture the visible (office design and furnishings) but also the invisible (people's attitudes and manners). Reinier Gerritsen mainly made stylised, carefully staged group portraits. Luuk Kramer chose a documentary, narrative approach.
Reinier Gerritsen
Luuk Kramer
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See also for The Table of Power. HASSINK, Jacqueline.
Photographs and text by Jacqueline Hassink. Essays by Henri Peretz and Raoul Bunschoten. With 21 four-color plates and additional black and white illustrations. Sage green cloth-covered flexible boards with title stamped in gold on spine and copy number stamped in black on a debossed gold panel on cover; no dust jacket as issued. First edition, limited to 1,000, each individually stamp-numbered on front cover. Dutch artist Jacqueline Hassink explores the upper echelons of corporate culture - this book consists of photographs of the boardroom tables of major multinational companies. Using the 'Fortune 500' list, Hassink approached Europe's top forty companies. Only 21 allowed a photograph to be taken of their boardroom. Those that denied access are included as black photographs. Parr, M. and Badger, G., The Photobook: A History Vol.2, pp.278-79. From the Gallery of Photography: "Dutch artist Jacqueline Hassink explores the upper echelons of corporate culture. Her photographs of the boardroom tables of multinational companies bring us into the heart of those spaces where nameless and faceless individuals make decisions that affect us all. Using the 'Fortune 500' list, Hassink approached Europe's top forty companies. Only 21 allowed a photograph to be taken of their boardroom. Those that denied access are included as black photographs, prompting us to pose the question: what have they got to hide? Accompanied by the artist's notes made during the process of negotiation, the exhibition combines the rigour of investigative photojournalism with the conceptual flair of fine art practice. The formal clarity of the work lets the viewer's own experience of 'tables of power' -- the family dining table, the teacher's desk -- inform the work. See for Thijsen Bedrijfsfotoboek Company Photobooks Photography ...
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Luuk Kramer
Photographs and text by Jacqueline Hassink. Essays by Henri Peretz and Raoul Bunschoten. With 21 four-color plates and additional black and white illustrations. Sage green cloth-covered flexible boards with title stamped in gold on spine and copy number stamped in black on a debossed gold panel on cover; no dust jacket as issued. First edition, limited to 1,000, each individually stamp-numbered on front cover. Dutch artist Jacqueline Hassink explores the upper echelons of corporate culture - this book consists of photographs of the boardroom tables of major multinational companies. Using the 'Fortune 500' list, Hassink approached Europe's top forty companies. Only 21 allowed a photograph to be taken of their boardroom. Those that denied access are included as black photographs. Parr, M. and Badger, G., The Photobook: A History Vol.2, pp.278-79. From the Gallery of Photography: "Dutch artist Jacqueline Hassink explores the upper echelons of corporate culture. Her photographs of the boardroom tables of multinational companies bring us into the heart of those spaces where nameless and faceless individuals make decisions that affect us all. Using the 'Fortune 500' list, Hassink approached Europe's top forty companies. Only 21 allowed a photograph to be taken of their boardroom. Those that denied access are included as black photographs, prompting us to pose the question: what have they got to hide? Accompanied by the artist's notes made during the process of negotiation, the exhibition combines the rigour of investigative photojournalism with the conceptual flair of fine art practice. The formal clarity of the work lets the viewer's own experience of 'tables of power' -- the family dining table, the teacher's desk -- inform the work. See for Thijsen Bedrijfsfotoboek Company Photobooks Photography ...
