Life is Strange

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Life is Strange displays and dissects the bewildering flood of images with which the twentieth century burst into the living rooms of bemused Dutch families. Thanks to the rapid development of photography, suddenly everyone was given a chance to take part in unknown events taking place in every corner of the world. ‘Photographic all-sorts from everywhere,’ as the Dutch illustrated magazine Het Leven called them: photographs of dramatic accidents, extraordinary events, far-off peoples, remarkable inventions, unusual customs, and larger-than-life characters.

From the 12 million of these images held in the Spaarnestad collection of the National Archives of the Netherlands, the photographer and curator Rob Moorees hand-picked a stunning selection of startling visual impact. Dutch writer Maarten Asscher wrote an essay giving these photographic faits divers their place in history. Photography researcher Saskia Asser put the magazine Het Leven into the context of the rise of the illustrated press in the Netherlands. This is a poignant historic record as well as a fascinating image of the human condition.