يَوْم الْفِرَاق

7 February – 25 July 2025

Opening on Thursday 6 February, from 17.30 - 21.00 hrs
in the presence of the artist and with a speech by Ramsey Nasr, poet and writer.
RSVP for the opening here.

Saul Leiter » An Unfinished World

A retrospective

24 January – 23 April 2025

Koos Breukel » Meet the Artist

... until 26 February 2025

Sarah Amrani » Terror of Beauty

... until 26 February 2025

Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam

Keizersgracht 609 . 1017 DS Amsterdam
T +31 (0)20-5516500
[email protected]
www.foam.org
Mon-Wed 10am-6pm; Thu-Fri 10am-9pm; Sat-Sun 10am-6pm

Grieving mothers. Jenin refugee camp, Palestine. June, 2023
© Sakir Khader/Magnum Photos.

Sakir Khader » Yawm al-firak / يَوْم الْفِرَاق

7 February – 25 July 2025

Opening on Thursday 6 February, from 17.30 - 21.00 hrs
in the presence of the artist and with a speech by Ramsey Nasr, poet and writer.
RSVP for the opening here.

Broken souls. Jenin Refugee camp, Palestine, 2023 (detail) © Sakir Khader / Magnum Photos.

Foam is proud to present Yawm al-Firak, Arabic for Day of Separation, the first solo exhibition by the Palestinian-Dutch photographer Sakir Khader. Since 2024, he has been the first Palestinian photographer selected to join the renowned photography collective Magnum Photos. Through his firsthand experiences in Palestinian occupied territories, Khader brings the viewer directly into the heart of the occupation. His images explore the fragile boundary between life and death.

In this exhibition, Khader gives a voice to seven young Palestinian men who were violently taken from life, and to their mothers who lost them. Through their stories and experiences, he reflects on farewells in times of occupation, conflict, war, and displacement. His images explore the fragile boundary between life and death.

The final homecoming, a farewell before the burial. Qabatiya, Jenin, 2023 © Sakir Khader / Magnum Photos.

The number seven symbolizes unity in many cultures. The seven mothers and their lost sons at the centre of this exhibition represent the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with the establishment of the state of Israel since 1948, also known as the Nakba. The title of the exhibition, Yawm al-Firak, refers to an ancient Arabic poem about separation and farewell. Khader connects this literary tradition with personal stories. His work touches on universal themes such as love, grief, and resilience. 

As essayist, filmmaker, and activist Susan Sontag wrote in Regarding the Pain of Others (2003) about the power of photography: “Let the atrocious images haunt us. (…) The images say: This is what human beings are capable of doing (…). Don't forget.” With his photographs and texts in this exhibition, Sakir Khader asks us to look beyond the statistics and political rhetoric and face the human cost of the Israeli occupation. His images candidly expose the consequences of oppression and violence on individual lives, regardless of which side of the divide we are on. 

About the artist
Sakir Khader (NL, 1990) studied journalism, media management, and communication. After working as a reporter and investigative journalist for outlets such as de Volkskrant, Brandpunt, and NOS op 3, he fully dedicated himself to documentary photography and film. His work, centred on the relationship between life and death in conflict areas, has been awarded prestigious prizes, including the Silver Camera award. 

A mother waits to hold her murdered son, one last time before he departs to eternity. Qabatiya, Jenin, 2023 © Sakir Khader / Magnum Photos.

The exhibition is made possible by Kleurgamma Fine Art Photolab.

Foam is supported by the VriendenLoterij, Foam Members, the VandenEnde Foundation and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK).
_ Foam uses your personal data for sending invitations and mailings. For more information, please check our privacy policy.

You are receiving this invitation because you are an appreciated relation of Foam

Harlem, 1960 © Saul Leiter / Saul Leiter Foundation.

Saul Leiter » An Unfinished World

A retrospective

... until 23 April 2025

Foam is proud to present a major retrospective exhibition of the celebrated American artist Saul Leiter (1923–2013). Leiter is seen as one of the most important photographers of the 1950’s in the United States and a pioneer of colour photography. The exhibition An Unfinished World brings together over 200 works, consisting of photography, both black-and-white and colour, as well as his abstract paintings. His eclectic oeuvre reveals a practice using shadow, light, and reflections to craft layered compositions.

Ana, 1950s © Saul Leiter / Saul Leiter Foundation.

For nearly sixty years, Leiter photographed daily, capturing everyday moments of New York City life. With various techniques and mediums, and the use of telephoto lenses, Leiter would enhance the painterly quality of his images and transform seemingly mundane street scenes into visual poetry. New York, a symbol of modernity in the 1950s, became the backdrop for Leiter’s aesthetic discoveries.

By shooting in the rain and snow, and using windows and other reflective surfaces, he created abstract images. A red umbrella, a green traffic light, or the yellow flash of a passing taxi add an unexpected play of colour to his photographs. In the 1940s and 1950s, Leiter was virtually the only non-commercial photographer to work in colour. The use of aged or damaged film allowed him to include surprising compositions with shifts in light and colour. Once lost to obscurity, his work was rediscovered in the mid 2010s for its ground-breaking role in the emergence of colour photography.

Photographs are often treated as important moments, but really they are fragments and souvenirs of an unfinished world.
– Saul Leiter

Leiter was a self-taught photographer whose strong sense of curiosity made him a lifelong student. He maintained his experimental and spontaneous approach throughout his career, which is evident in both his street photography and fashion work. Upon his death in 2013, Leiter left behind a remarkable collection of approximately 15,000 black-and-white prints, at least 40,000 colour slides, a similar number of black-and-white negatives and over 4000 paintings, only a handful of which have been seen publicly. The exhibition An Unfinished World offers visitors the chance to admire the endless poetry of Saul Leiter’s artistic practice through his paintings, photography and unique view on the world around him.

Saul Leiter (1923–2013) began painting and photographing in his teenage years, gaining an early recognition for his paintings. After moving to New York in 1946, he turned to photography as a profession while continuing to paint. His abstract forms and groundbreaking compositions possess a painterly quality that distinguishes them from the works of other photographers of that era. His work significantly contributed to the emergence of what is now known as the New York School of photography. In 1957, he began working for major publications like Esquire and Harper’s Bazaar, balancing his commercial success with his personal passion for street photography in his Manhattan neighborhood.

Leiter's groundbreaking work in colour photography gained widespread acclaim with the release of his first book, Early Color (2006). By the time of his death in 2013, Leiter had achieved international recognition, with his work featured in numerous museum exhibitions and publications worldwide.

Koos Breukel » Meet the Artist

... until 26 February 2025

Foam presents Meet the Artist, an exhibition that offers a special insight into the life and career of one of the Netherlands' leading portrait photographers: Koos Breukel. This exhibition not only offers an overview of his impressive oeuvre, but also invites visitors to meet the artist himself and engage in conversation with him. In a specially equipped photo studio within the exhibition, there is even the possibility to be photographed by Breukel himself.

The exhibition features mostly artist portraits that represent a cross-section of Breukel's career, from 1982 to the present. His photographs are known for their ability to capture the everyday and the coincidental, with attention to vulnerability and authenticity. His portraits are often shot with analogue cameras and have a timeless and pure appearance. Thanks to Breukel's empathetic approach and the creation of an atmosphere of mutual trust, his subjects dare to be vulnerable, which is reflected in the photos.

Meet the Artist highlights the people who have played an important role in Breukel’s development as a photographer and person. Portraits of influential figures such as Robert Frank, Ata Kandó, Ed van der Elsken, and Marlene Dumas, show his sources of inspiration and the people who shaped him.

A special aspect of the exhibition is the active presence of Koos Breukel himself. During the entire exhibition period, he will be present for four days a week in his photo studio in the exhibition, where visitors can discuss his work, inspiration and his vision on photography with him. There is even a chance to be photographed by Breukel personally and thus become part of his artistic process. The exhibition is an invitation to experience Koos Breukel and his creative world up close.

Koos Breukel (1962, The Hague) is a leading Dutch portrait photographer. After studying at the School for Photography and Photonics in The Hague, he established himself as a freelance photographer in Amsterdam, where he specialized in portrait photography. In 1999, he focused almost entirely on autonomous work, mainly commissioned by museums and galleries. Since 2010, he has been making dozens of portraits of the Netherlands' greatest actors for the DeLaMar theater in Amsterdam.

He was a photography teacher at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and is known for his compelling series of seriously ill friends. Breukel has received several awards, including the Incentive Award from the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts in 1994 and the Best Designed Book Award twice. His work has been exhibited (inter)nationally, from the MEP in Paris to the Pori Art Museum in Finland.

Sarah Amrani » Terror of Beauty

... until 26 February 2025

Foam 3h presents Terror of Beauty, the first solo museum exhibition by artist Sarah Amrani. With her work, Amrani explores the complex relationship between technology, culture and beauty standards. The multimedial exhibition invites visitors to think critically about how our perception of beauty and identity is shaped in the digital age.

Sarah Amrani explores the effect of social media and technologies on the experience of female identity, with a focus on the face as a battleground of beauty. In a time where we are constantly confronted with unrealistic beauty standards, through our phones, television and advertising, Terror of Beauty offers a moment to reflect. The exhibition also explores AI-driven beauty filters that are used to construct a preview of physical surgical procedures. Disguised as a tool, this contributes to the pressure to meet certain standards.

An important topic for Amrani is the hijab as a visual frame of the female face. A frame that not only emphasizes her beauty, but also reflects women’s autonomy and self-expression. Driven by a fascination with the visual language of the hijab in a digital context, such as in makeup tutorials, she began to explore the hijab in relation to beauty standards and digital technologies. In doing so, she presents an underexplored perspective in the conversation about beauty and the digital world and challenges the current societal discourse on this topic.

Terror of Beauty highlights the intersection between technology, culture and beauty standards, and challenges visitors to think about the influence of developments in this area on our self-image. The exhibition contains photography, video installations, and textile works

Sarah Amrani is the eighth recipient of the Florentine Riem Vis Grant. The grant was established in memory of Florentine Riem Vis (1959-2016) and is awarded annually to enable a young artist to further develop their artistic career. Previous recipients include Steffi Reimers (2023), Bebe Blanco Agterberg (2022), Karolina Wojtas (2021), Gilleam Trapenberg (2020), Solène Gün (2019), Rebecca Sampson (2018) and Stefanie Moshammer (2016/17).

unsubscribe here
Newsletter was sent to [email protected]

© 4 February 2025 photography now UG (haftungsbeschränkt)
Ziegelstr. 29 . D–10117 Berlin
Editors: Claudia Stein & Michael Steinke
[email protected] . T +49.30.24 34 27 80