After being invited to create an exhibition of photographs by Dutch photographers from the Polaroid Collection, we wondered what distinguishes their artwork as Dutch. Is there a commonality that binds them in like-mindedness? To look at the images of this collection of work, one quickly sees that the 14 contributing photographers view the world in universal terms. What interests them is self-revelation and expression, ideas, myths and legends, the portrait, the nude, design, and, of course, the landscape. These elements form the grist for the mill of humankind.

These photographers chronicle the people and places that touch their lives in a straightforward manner. Without the artifice of hand-embellishing processes or techniques, they reveal individual passions: a friend’s theatricality, a dad’s delight in the innocence of childhood, the striking shapes of man-made structures thrust into the natural world. Here, one photographer celebrates citizens who volunteer their time to do community service while other artists turn the camera on themselves to explore both psychic and corporeal realities.