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The Noorderlicht Photography Foundation had its origins in the USVA* Noorderlicht Photography Gallery, founded in 1980. In 1991 the gallery received the Dunhill Distinction Award. It is one of the longest-running photo galleries in The Netherlands. In its first years the gallery was an important platform for new developments in Dutch documentary photography. Even though several forms of art photography are now also shown, documentary photography still spearheads the programme. In November 1990 the tenth anniversary of the USVA Noorderlicht Photography Gallery was celebrated with what would become the first edition of the Noorderlicht festival. (* USVA = university cultural centre) Noorderlicht Photofestival From its inception Noorderlicht has been a platform for photographers who are in search of new visual forms and use the medium to investigate and visualise society. The success of the first Noorderlicht event in 1990 led to an independent Noorderlicht Photography Foundation. While the first edition of Noorderlicht looked at the qualities of photography peculiar to the northern Netherlands, in the edition of 1991 its gaze was expanded to the rest of The Netherlands. After these first explorations, it was decided to change the event into a biennale with an international character. The 1993 event Home was the first edition of this new Noorderlicht, organised according to the concept that is still being employed: a thematically arranged main exhibition comprised of carefully selected individual series that concentrate on social developments. In 2000, with the organisation of the Africa Inside event in Leeuwarden, Noorderlicht became an annually recurring festival, taking place alternatively in Groningen and the Friesian capital, Leeuwarden. For this purpose a collaboration was begun with the Friesian Museum in Leeuwarden. Noorderlicht is the only annual photography festival in The Netherlands (and one of the few in the world), and at the same time is the most heavily visited art event in the north of The Netherlands. The Noorderlicht festivals in Groningen and Friesland differ in content and organisation. Where the main exhibition of the Groningen editions takes the form of a thematic show constructed of solo presentations, the Friesian Noorderlicht systematically focuses attention on non-Western photography. The point of departure for this is the singularity of non-Western photography, and other photographic traditions unfamiliar to us. It is not our vision, but the peculiar vision of the photographers which must be definitive for the character of the exhibition. In other words: the image created by the exhibition must come into being from the inside out. Precisely because of this approach the exhibitions become a multi-cultural voyage of discovery for the participating photographers, the organisers, and the visitors. 1990 - Noorderlicht I Project Bureau Noorderlicht In addition to organising the festival and the gallery, Noorderlicht does a lot more! It awards photography commissions, organises lectures and workshops and develops educational programmes. It also acts as an advisor for fellow institutions, governmental authorities and businesses. All these activities are gathered under the denominator 'Project Bureau'. A small selection: In 2000 Noorderlicht awarded its first commission to the young Swedish photographer Albin Biblom. His project, 'The Journals of Jacob Mandeville', appeared in the form of a book from publisher Aurora Borealis, and was presented during the 2001 Festival at the Natural History Museum in Groningen, where it proved extremely successful. In the summer of 2002 Noorderlicht organised 'Confronting Views', an international group exhibition in which nine photographers sketched a picture of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. An extensive catalogue appeared to accompany this exhibition. After Groningen, Confronting Views traveled to the Fotografia photography festival in Rome, and on to The Photographers' Gallery in London. In 2003 the traveling, changing exhibition 'The Escape' is being organised for the station halls in Groningen, Leeuwarden and Assen (the capitals of the three northern Dutch provinces). The Escape presents photographs printed in extremely large format which, combined with one another, offer a surprising look at everyday realities. In 2004 the photobook 'Land of Promise' is published. The exhibition under the same title that forms the basis for the book, is the opening exhibition of the new exhibition space of Noorderlicht at the Akerkhof in Groningen. 'Land of Promise' is the presentation of the commissions that were given to Adrienne van Eekelen (The Netherlands) and Antoine d'Agata (France), Ken Schles (USA) and Anders Petersen (Sweden), and finally John Davies (Great Britain), in 2001, 2002 and 2003 respectively. Publisher Noorderlicht: Aurora Borealis The catalogues which appear with the festivals and projects are produced and published by Noorderlicht's own publisher, Aurora Borealis. The books have been praised internationally for the quality of their content, design and printing values. Databank Noorderlicht: Pandora's Box Over the years Noorderlicht has built an extensive archive with documentation material on (and photographs by) the most divergent photographers from The Netherlands and other countries. This archive, now largely digitised, is maintained under the name Pandora's Box. It can be consulted by appointment for assembling exhibitions and publications. Photographers can submit work for inclusion in this archive. |
