Photo report shows visitors in all their diversity
December 2024, interview
For the 24/25 programme guide, city photographer Rene Castelijn created a photo report of visitors to Amare. For one month he documented visitors in all their diversity, at various moments. People in Amare is now temporarily on display at Kunstenplein. We asked the photographer about the creation process and what inspires him.
The exhibition People in Amare is on display at Kunstenplein from 2 December to 6 January. How did this photo report come to be?
“This photo report came about when Amare and Stof Rotterdam asked me to create a series of images for the 2024/2025 programme guide. Of course the performing companies supply their own images about their performances, but there was also a wish to highlight Amare itself.
We soon hit on the idea of putting Amare’s visitors in the spotlight. We wanted to give an impression of the different routes that people follow through Amare, and the wide range of things you can do in Amare over the course of one day.
To document this I spent one month visiting many activities, concerts and performances. The result is a photographic series that captures real moments, but that also shows the diversity of visitors to Amare. In the end we liked the photographs so much that we decided to exhibit them temporarily at Kunstenplein.”
Did you find it special to create this photo report? Was there anything remarkable or inspiring about the visitors to Amare?
“It’s always inspiring to have real contact with people. What struck me was how everyone seemed entirely comfortable just being themselves. That’s quite unique. Virtually no one declined to cooperate with the photography, and everyone posed entirely calmly in front of the camera, which doesn’t happen often. Usually people ask how they should pose, which detracts from the spontaneity of the image. Or they assume a pose they’ve picked up from television or the internet. But that didn’t happen in Amare.”
What was the most special moment you experienced in Amare while making the photo report?
“Some people strike you because they’ve got some kind of aura. But you should also remember that people show up for a show fifteen minutes ahead of time, not expecting to be accosted by a photographer. They want to pay a quick visit to the toilet, get a drink and find their seat. I had to act very quickly to get a couple of people to pose. Sometimes the biggest stand-out person would run right past me into the hall, a minute before the doors closed. That’s just a matter of bad luck.”
“When time matters, you start to think and look differently. I often had to act within a minute, which usually means less material, but in this situation it worked really well. So in a way I just find it very special that I was able to create so many striking portraits in such a short space of time. What’s on display at Kunstenplein is roughly one fourth of all the pictures I took, because I had to make choices in the end.”
"As a photographer I look many people in the eye, as a way to quickly establish contact with them. I soon forget people’s names, but once I’ve taken someone’s picture I will recognise them again among thousands of faces. Recently I bumped into one of the people I photographed somewhere in town. He looked very different, but I immediately knew it was him. Of course it’s nice to say hello and have a quick chat then!”
What else do you do as a photographer? What inspires you?
“In my view, there’s no subject as gratifying as people. People are what inspires me. But what is a human being? I studied philosophy, so that’s the kind of question that has fascinated me all my life.
When people ask me what philosophy is all about, I like to cite Immanuel Kant. Kant said that philosophy revolves around three questions: What should I do? What can I know? What may I hope for? These are abstract questions that can play a role when there are important decisions to be made. Actually Plato already asked these questions, but then phrased in terms of the good, the true and the beautiful.
What’s the connection with photography? The connection might not be obvious, but I do see these questions reflected in my portraits. Content adds depth to form, which I think you can see in my photos. In my autonomous work as a photographer I take a more conceptual approach. Of course I also work with people then, we sometimes even collaborate, but it’s still very different, perhaps even a bit daft at times!
My autonomous work is a way for me to express myself, to feed my creativity and to escape the existential nature of reality. You can see some of my work on castspace.nl.”
What do you hope that passersby and visitors to Amare will take away from the exhibition in Amare?
“I hope that they will feel a sense of connection. Each portrait tells a unique story, but together they form a bigger picture that reminds us of the diversity and beauty of human beings in general. We see people who aren’t pretending but are simply being purely themselves.”
The free exhibition People in Amare is on display at Kunstenplein until 6 January 2025.
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