Gluckauf

by Bertien van Manen (Photographer), Marcia Luyten (Contributor), Fabian de Kloe (Contributor)

Bertien van Manen grew up in Heerlen, the centre of the eastern part of the former Dutch coal mining region, where her father worked as an engineer for the State Mines. This publication brings together photographs Bertien van Manen made in different mining towns: Wakefield and New Sharlston, Yorkshire (UK, 1970s), Most (CZ, 1980s), the Appalachian Mountains (US, 1980-1990s), and Apanas, Siberia (RU, 1990s).

164 pages, Hardcover

First published April 14, 2023

About the author

Bertien van Manen started her career in 1975, at forty years of age, as a fashion photographer. Inspired by Robert Frank’s The Americans, depicting a raw side of the United States, she turned to documentary photography. Bertien travelled the world, taking photos of people she met and often befriended. Fluent in Russian, she was one of the first documentary photographers to enter the former Soviet Union after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Her photographs of Russian people, made during five years travelling the former Soviet Union, are documented in the books Hundred Summers Hundred Winters (1994) and Let’s sit down before we go (2011). Van Manen travelled and documented much of the world, including Eastern Europe, the Western Sahara and the Appalachians. Her travels trough China are captured in the book East Wind West Wind (2001).

Van Manen enjoyed a Dutch privileged upbringing in Heerlen, where her father was an engineer in the State coal mines. She felt closely connected to the coal miners, whose homes and families she found to be warm and friendly. Later, she documented mine workers in different places, including Sheffield, Siberia and the Appalachians. She often stayed in close contact with her subjects, sending them photographs and exchanging letters.

Bertien van Manen is known for her intimate yet “raw” photography, showing people as they are, without any retouching or amending any apparent irregularities in her photos. She used a snapshot camera, to allow closer contact and to be able to look her subjects in the eyes while photographing. Van Manen has been a pioneer and an example for many.

Bertien van Manen has left a legacy of photographic works, exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Fotomuseum Winterthur, among others. Bertien’s work is found in major public collections.

Reviews

[lex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over the course of three decades Bertien van Manen stayed in various coal mining towns across Europe and the US to make photo series of mine workers. What’s special is that this isn’t a portrait about poverty and dire working conditions. Van Manen focuses on the personal lives of the workers at home, unwinding with their families, and it shows great warmth and character. Van Manen grew up in a mining town herself and it is palpable in the images that she has a personal bond with mining communities. There’s a particular focus on women mine workers and the book contains insightful first-hand accounts from them. A special mention to Hans Gremmen for making a terrifically edited and designed book.