Amsterdam - Anna Beeke

If I were to introduce this project in a journalistic way, as I have in the past, I would say: Amsterdam, a small city thirty miles northwest of Albany in upstate New York, was once a thriving center of carpet production, but like much of the surrounding region has been in a steady state of economic and physical decline for several decades. My project, Amsterdam, New York, is a photographic document of a city in decline, and the life that continues there. Much of the project is about physical spaces, occupied and unoccupied: I explore the contrast between Amsterdam’s living and dead spaces, how its residents relate to the physical space of the city, and how their lives are informed by the landscape in which they carry out their daily rituals. Though the physical landscape of Amsterdam is not what it once was, its human landscape is alive and vibrant.

Amsterdam, NY © 2011 Anna Beeke

However, the facts are much more complicated than this. I cannot claim to be completely objective and this ‘portrait of a town’ project is also very much about my own particular journey through a wonderful and endlessly fascinating community; it is equal parts topographic document and emotional response. While I may have initially been drawn to Amsterdam by its environment, I have continued to photograph for nearly three years because of the people I have met there and a continual sense of discovery. If an entire city is your subject the possibilities are endless, and in Amsterdam I am continually encountering elements familiar and foreign, common mundane daily ritual and things completely unexpected. I recognize myself in Amsterdam, I find myself, and I also often feel completely lost.  I still can’t say exactly what it is about Amsterdam that draws me to it, it’s a place and a project about which I have a hard time articulating. If my words can’t justly describe it, perhaps my photographs can.

Amsterdam, NY © 2011 Anna Beeke

Amsterdam, NY © 2011 Anna Beeke

Amsterdam, NY © 2011 Anna Beeke

Amsterdam, NY © 2011 Anna Beeke

Amsterdam, NY © 2011 Anna Beeke

Amsterdam, NY © 2011 Anna Beeke

Amsterdam, NY © 2011 Anna Beeke

Amsterdam, NY © 2011 Anna Beeke

Amsterdam, NY © 2011 Anna Beeke

More images from Anna Beeke's Amsterdam series can be found in prism #02


Anna Beeke is a documentary and event photographer based out of Brooklyn, New York. She is a graduate of the International Center of Photography's 2009 Photojournalism and Documentary Photography Program and received her BA in English from Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio in 2007. She is currently pursuing her MFA at the School of Visual Arts.

Anna was selected as a participant in the Eddie Adams Workshop 2009 and her work was chosen to be included in th "reGeneration2: Tomorrow's Photographers today" exhibition and book by the Musée de L'Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland which will travel internationally from 2010-2015. Most recently, she was a recipient of the 'Too much chocolate + Kodak film' grant and 3rd place finalist in the Photocrati Fund Grant Competition.

Anna's work has been exhibited at the International Center of Photography in New York, the Musée de L'Elysée in Switzerland, the Rencontres d'Arles in France, the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China, the Michaelis School of Fine Art in South Africa, the Flash Forward Festival in Toronto, Galleria Carla Sozzani in Milan, Fotoweek DC, Centre Gallery in Miami, the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, Fava Gallery in Ohio, and Synchronicity Fine Arts in Manhattan.