The dutch writer Frank Bokern has written a fantastic book about the Stokstraatkwartier, a small neighborhood in the center of Maastricht and, without a doubt, the most peculiar victim of the industrial revolution. At first, around 1840, the neighborhood belonged to the upper class, but soon became a melting pot for the workers, beggars and prostitutes, Crapuul as they say in Maastricht. The palaces turned into ruins that continued to be inhabited by the less fortunate. It took Maastricht over a 100 years to finally intervene, its approach however being draconian.

The inhabitants were being forced to move to ‘residential schools’, meant to turn them into ‘decent’ citizens. Today this still causes a stigma around the former residents and this book has greatly helped rehabilitating them by telling their story through extensive interviews with them.

Curator Corina Karstenberg from Transport Artspace came up with the brilliant idea to have me photograph the interviewees using wet plate collodion, since this process dates from the start of this book. From May 7th until June 24th these portraits will be exhibited at the Dominicaner Bookshop. At the same time all of the portraits will be on show again at Transport Artspace at the Landbouwbelang. More info on that in a separate event.

On Thursday the 25th of May there will be an opening, starting at 19.00 hr. The opening speech will be held by the writer Frank Bokern. Artist and poet Lars den Hartog will share a poem he has written especially for this project. I will tell something about the technique used to make the images. And last but certainly not least, the former inhabitants of the Stokstraat area will tell and share their stories in person.