1975-2001: Dutch History Photo Commissions > The Young Ones
Exhibition: 1985-1986
Punks, football fans and squatters. In the eighties these were the most striking groups of youths. Apart from their differences, they also had a number of things in common. Some statistics for seventeen-year-olds in 1985 were: 75 percent went to school, about five percent lived in rented rooms, more than half played some sport.
Some of their differences were expressed through hair style, clothes, language and gestures. The various groups, each with their own particular life style, met in their own bars, at concerts and demonstrations. The politically aware and activist young people were to be found amongst the squatters, peace activists and the extremist rightwing groups. Religious youths met at the special events for young people organised by the EO (a protestant broadcasting corporation) and at Youth for Christ. Other groups were based on ethnic origin, such as Moroccans, Turks and Surinamese. Gay youths and girls' groups also asserted themselves more and more. Even a group that didn't belong on principle, that of teenage drop-outs, developed its own culture.
The commission for the exhibition ‘The Young Ones’ was awarded to the photographers Han Singels and Maya Pejic just before the International Youth Year 1985.
