Online Portfolio Reviews - 28 September

Location: Zoom (online)

Date: 28 September 2024

Costs: €5,-

We connect professionals in the field with talents, students and amateur photographers who already have an advanced practice. As reviewers, we have invited a selection of curators, editors, publishers, and photographers.

Nina Venus

Nina Venus is a painter; she lives and works as an artist and independent curator in Hamburg. Following an undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Roman Philology from LMU in Munich, she completed her studies 2000 with a Master of Fine Arts in painting from TUFTS University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston (USA). 

Her works have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in independent galleries and institutions and are represented in private collections. In 2020, for example, she exhibited work from her current body of work, the cloud paintings, at renowned Hamburg. gallery Melike Bilir. In 2023, the city of Kiel commissioned Nina Venus to paint a portrait of outgoing city president Hans-Werner Tovar; this painting was ceremoniously unveiled and is now part of the historic “Ahnengalerie” of the Kiel City Hall. 

She also works as an independent curator. Namely, in 2018 she directed the OFF TRIENNALE for the Deichtorhallen Hamburg as part of the International Triennial of Photography, in 2022 she curated “hello.again” for the Kunsthalle Lüneburg as part of the retrospective of photographer Volker Hinz, most recently she curated the comprehensive exhibition “Art on the Dancefloor” for the International Fotofestiwal Lødz, Poland in 2023. 

She taught as lecturer and visiting professor at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Kiel between 2015 and 2022.

Femke Rotteveel

Femke Rotteveel (1971) is since 2017 the director of FOTODOK. FOTODOK is an institution in Utrecht (NL) where photography exhibitions are curated around social themes to broaden perspectives or provide new insights. In addition, FOTODOK is organizing in depth programs, i.e. on photobooks, and is guiding makers in their development FOTODOK is actively involved in (inter)national talent programs such as Lighthouse, FUTURES, Talent Embassy and Blurring the Lines. With the major role of images nowadays in information provision, it is FOTODOK’s mission to include the educational program Learning to See in the fixed curriculum of education for all children Femke is a connector with a large (inter)national network of cultural institutions, photographers, social organizations, funds, (impact) investors and entrepreneurs. She studied social-economic history at the University of Amsterdam and Exeter University. At the start of her career Femke worked for 8 years as head of World Press Photo’s exhibition department where she was responsible for organizing and financing the 100 exhibitions that take place worldwide every year. She subsequently was 8 years the Head of Allocations at the Charity Lotteries, where she was responsible for the distribution of the proceeds of the Postcode Lottery and Friends Lottery to cultural institutions, charitable organizations and social enterprises. 

Astrid Hulsmann

Astrid Hulsmann works as a curator and communication manager at BredaPhoto. Previously she has been working at Kunstmuseum & Fotomuseum Den Haag. She’s a guest tutor at art academies, writes on contemporary photography and organises photography talks as a board member of PictureThis. She holds a Master’s degree in Art History. 

Jeroen Toirkens

Jeroen Toirkens (Netherlands, b. 1971) studied Photographic Design at the Royal Academy for the Visual Arts in The Hague and is working as an independent photographer and filmmaker since 1995. He focuses on social documentary photography and slow-journalism and has published extensively in national and international newspapers and magazines. His book Nomad (2011) on the last living nomads of the Northern Hemisphere has won the prestigious Canon prize for best innovative photostory. His latest project in cooperation with writer and journalist Jelle Brandt Corstius, Borealis – on the Northern forests and their inhabitants, resulted in a book and an exhibition that has been on view at Fotomuseum Den Haag and at the Anchorage Museum in Alaska, USA.  

Alex Avgud

Alex Avgud is a Russian-born photography artist based in The Netherlands since 2015. His autonomous visual works explore degrees of autonomy of a human body in shifting political contexts and address such issues as migration, queer sexuality and relativity of freedom through merging photography with choreographed performances. For commissioned work, he embarks on fashion & theatre assignments.  

In 2019 Alex has graduated from Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague with a BA degree in Photography, winning Photo Talent Award at ‘Best of Graduates’ exhibition in Amsterdam at Galerie Ron Mandos. Alex has exhibited, amongst other venues, at Les Rencontres d’Arles in France with FOAM Photography Museum, at UNSEEN Photo Fair (Amsterdam), EYE Film Museum (Amsterdam), at 37th Hyéres Festival of Fashion and Photography (France), with Atla Platform in Copenhagen (Denmark), and at Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo (Norway).  

Alex is a Laureate of Dior Photography Award 2020, was shortlisted for Dummy Book Award (Cologne, Germany) & OD Photo Prize (London, UK). His works are a part of private and corporate collections across Europe & USA.  

As an educator & mentor he’s currently a guest teacher at KABK and has been involved in programmes encouraging young talent in Denmark (Copenhagen Photo Festival) & Russia (a creative laboratory for teenagers of underprivileged backgrounds in a small mining town).  

Sayuri Ichida

Sayuri Ichida is a Margate, UK-based artist specializing in photography.  
Born in Fukuoka, Japan, in 1985, her work explores themes of self-identity, personal memories, and life experiences. 
Ichida’s exhibitions include solo shows at PhMuseum Lab (Bologna), IBASHO Gallery (Antwerp), Unseen Amsterdam, and InCadaques International Photography Festival (Cadaques). Her work was also presented at Art Paris and the SPARK Art Fair in Vienna. Her artworks are in the collections of Museum Voorlinden.  
Her book ‘Absentee’ was named one of the ten best photobooks by the Prix Nadar Prize in 2022. She was an artist-in-residence with Light Work in 2023, and her work ‘Ctrl Shift +J’ was shortlisted for the Grand Prix Images Vevey 2023/2024. 
Ichida graduated from Tokyo Visual Arts College and completed an MA in Photography Arts from the University of Westminster. 

Aya Musa

Aya Musa is a curator at Foam. Prior to this, he was a curator and head programmer at the Nederlands Fotomuseum. In his work, Aya combines social developments with new exhibition forms, where photography is not subordinate to the context from which it arises, but at the same time never loses sight of this context. In this way, he gives photography a stage that goes beyond existing clichés. Since 2001, he has combined his work in the Netherlands with empirical ethnographic research into the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. Currently, Aya is studying the photographic representation of victims of sectarian violence in the region.

Wiesje Peels

Wiesje Peels (Netherlands, b. 1975) studied Photografic Design at St. Joost School of Art and Design and is working as an artist and art educator since 1994. She published several photobooks and her work has been seen on national and international exhibitions (‘Mimus’ was on show at BredaPhoto festival in 2014). 

Her way of working has a ‘performative side’. She builds ‘tools’ to connect with. Inside and outside a framework. For instance, in collaboration with Nest (family partnership), she designed the stage image for the performance of ‘Islands’ by composer Richard Ayres and the Asko Schonberg ensemble, commissioned by BredaPhoto festival. It brought together music, film, photography, spatial design and performance. For Stichting Beeldmix, she built her DOKAR, a dark room for behind her bicycle. As an ode to photographer Martien Coppens. With this she cycled through De Peel. During her trip, she was able to develop and print her analogue photos directly. This resulted in an indoor and outdoor exhibition at Tilburg railway station and Tilburg University.