EXPECTED: ESNS Photo

ESNS Photo is new. Yet it somehow feels like it should always have been there: ESNS has been celebrating forty years of music, makers, and midwinter nights in Groningen; Noorderlicht has been doing the same for over thirty years in photography and visual culture. ESNS Photo becomes an annual collaboration in which music and lens-based media meet. The first edition is in the hands of three northern photographers who instinctively know how to capture a scene without weighing it down, in a way that suits Groningen. Down-to-earth, open, and to the point.

What happens when three makers, each with their own rhythm and sensitivity, approach the music world from within? ESNS Photo 2026 reveals how music settles into people, places, and colours, and how images can sometimes perhaps make you feel just as much as sound. Northern photographers Niels Meijer, Nick Helderman, and Jantina Talsma form a triangle of perspectives in this first edition: each with a slightly different angle, and each with their own way of looking and “listening with their eyes.” ESNS Photo 2026 brings their worlds together in this inaugural edition and shows what music can look like when you stop just looking and start feeling.

What? ESNS Photo, a new collaboration between Noorderlicht and ESNS
Where? Noorderlicht Gallery, Akerkhof 12, 9711 JB Groningen
When? 14–17 January 2026, opening reception: 14 January at 15:00
farewell reception for Noorderlicht’s Head Curator Wim Melis: 14 January at 17:00
Who? Nick Helderman, Niels Meijer, and Jantina Talsma, curated by Anna van Nunen (Director ESNS) and Roosje Klap (Director Noorderlicht)

About the photographers:
Nick Helderman started in Leeuwarden with a camera in his hand and music in his system. He worked as a tour photographer, stayed close to artists, and developed a way of seeing that lets light and colour speak together. Today he works as a photographer and director, partly in the Netherlands and partly in Paris. His work moves between intuition and attentiveness, guided by a strong feel for atmosphere. Nick lets his images and videos emerge in the moment, carrying emotion without naming it outright: he still follows the stories with a camera in hand.

Niels Meijer is, for many people in Groningen, almost a familiar neighbour; many know him as Knelis. You’ll spot him at Noorderzon, ESNS, Paradigm, and at the parties where the program shifts as fluidly as the night. He once started as a writer for 3voor12, but photography became his work and DJ’ing his outlet. Niels looks at the scene from the inside. He knows the places, he knows the people, and above all he knows the rhythms. His photos breathe this sense of closeness in a world often filled with “louder and more.”

Jantina Talsma works both in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. With a keen eye for details others skip over, she reveals small gestures, edges, and glances. She photographed album covers and tours, worked for artists, and creates images in which people are given space of their own. Her style is colourful and cinematic, but never heavy: you can feel the openness of the conversation she has with her subjects, as if she leaves room in every image for what might still unfold.