Noorderlicht X Friese Lente
During Friese Lente, Noorderlicht presents a photography exhibition!
Noorderlicht, in collaboration with ESNS, has curated a special photo exhibition featuring three Northern photographers who have become indispensable and unmistakable within the pop music landscape: Nick Helderman, Jantina Talsma, and Niels Knelis Meijer. For Friese Lente, the works are being presented again at Podium Explore.
Three photographers explore the music world from within: grounded, open, and without embellishment. Their images reveal how music embeds itself in bodies, places, and colors. Helderman, Meijer, and Talsma look as if they are listening—each with their own rhythm, each with a different sensitivity. Together, they form a triangle of perspectives that makes music tangible. Look, listen, and notice how images can sometimes resonate just as powerfully as sound.
About the photographers:
Nick Helderman started out in Leeuwarden with a camera in his hand and music in his system. He worked as a tour photographer, staying close to artists and developing a way of seeing in which light and color speak to one another. He now works as a photographer and director, partly in the Netherlands and partly in Paris. His work moves between intuition and attentiveness, with a strong sense of atmosphere. He allows his images and videos to emerge in the moment, conveying emotion without stating it explicitly—Nick still follows stories with a camera in hand.
Niels Meijer is almost like a familiar neighbor to many people in Groningen; many also know him as Knelis. You’ll run into him at Noorderzon, ESNS, Paradigm, and at parties where the program shifts as smoothly as the night itself. He once started as a writer for 3voor12, but photography became his profession and DJing his outlet. Niels observes the scene from within. He knows the places, he knows the people, and above all, he knows the rhythms. His photographs breathe this sense of proximity in a world that is often driven by “louder and more.”
Jantina Talsma works both in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. With a keen eye for details others might overlook, she captures small gestures, edges, and glances. She has photographed album covers and tours, worked with artists, and created images in which people are given their own space. Her style is colorful and cinematic, but rarely heavy: you can sense the openness of the conversation she has with her subjects, as if each image leaves room for what might still happen.
Location: Podium Explore, Bagijnestraat 59, Leeuwarden
Opening hours: April 11 and 12 from 15:00 to 22:00, and April 17 to 19 from 19:00 to 23:00