1975-2001: Dutch History Photo Commissions > Unemployment in the Netherlands

Uitbetaling WW-uitkering, 1976, fotograaf Posthuma de Boer

Exhibition: 1977

Unemployment was the major problem of the seventies. The photographers were commissioned to capture how many people faced the threat of unemployment and how they opposed impending shut-downs. Did the imminent redundancies create solidarity or did they bring about dissent? When and where did the unions and employees councils show their power, or their lack of it?

Photographers Bert Nienhuis and Eddy Posthuma de Boer took photo's of unemployed people and their families, union meetings, deserted factories and factory occupations. It was the first photo commission the Rijksmuseum awarded.

Bert Nienhuis
Eddy Posthuma de Boer

Examples from this collection 1975-2001: Dutch History Photo Commissions

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