Thijs groot Wassink (born 1981) and Ruben Lundgren (born 1983) are two

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

photographers who work together as WassinkLundgren. Their photography and film projects shift mundane, often unnoticeable, everyday occurrences into visually compelling and gently amusing observations of the world around us. Notable projects include ''Empty Bottles'' (2007), ''Tokyo Tokyo'' (2010) and ''This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land'' (2012). They also worked as editors and curators on ''The Chinese Photobook'' (2015). Thijs groot Wassink lives in London while Ruben Lundgren lives in Beijing.

Career

The duo met at the

Utrecht School of the Arts The HKU University of the Arts Utrecht ( nl, Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht, HKU) is a performing arts and visual arts educational institution in Utrecht, Netherlands. Overview The institution has 680 teachers and staff members. The HKU co ...

from whose photography department they graduated in 2005. Their first collaborative publication ''Is Still Searching'' was given away, but not until the duo had torn out the pages that were no longer relevant to them at that moment. Their next publication ''Empty Bottles'' (2007) won the Prix du Livre for Best Contemporary Photobook at

Rencontres d'Arles The Rencontres d’Arles (formerly called ''Rencontres internationales de la photographie d’Arles'') is an annual summer photography festival founded in 1970 by the Arles photographer Lucien Clergue, the writer Michel Tournier and the historia ...

and is included in ''The Photobook: A History Volume III'' by

Martin Parr Martin Parr (born 23 May 1952) is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist and photobook collector. He is known for his photographic projects that take an intimate, satirical and anthropological look at aspects of modern life, in p ...

and

Gerry Badger Gerald David "Gerry" Badger (born 1946) is an English writer and curator of photography, and a photographer. In 2018 he received the J Dudley Johnston Award from the Royal Photographic Society. Life and career Badger was born in 1946 in Northam ...

. From 2007 to 2008 Thijs groot Wassink studied Fine Arts (MA) at

Central Saint Martins Central Saint Martins is a public tertiary art school in London, England. It is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a variety of shor ...

in London. Ruben Lundgren studied photographic design (MA) at the

Central Academy of Fine Arts The Central Academy of Fine Arts or CAFA is an art academy under the direct charge of the Ministry of Education of China. The Manila Bulletin calls the school "China’s most prestigious and renowned art academy". It is one of the most selectiv ...

in Beijing from 2007 to 2011. They have worked with the

Archive of Modern Conflict Archive of Modern Conflict (AMC) is an organisation and independent publisher based in Holland Park, London, England. AMC was established in the early 1990s and maintains an archive of vernacular material relating to the history of war, primarily ...

on the photobooks ''Don't Smile Now... Save it for Later!'' (2008) and ''Tokyo Tokyo'' (2010). In 2011 the latter was nominated for the Dutch Doc Award, an annual award for the best Dutch documentary work of the year. In their series ''This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land'' (2012) they document the most expensive part of the Netherlands, the financial district called the Zuidas. By doing so, they challenge our expectations of land, value, and the value of land. Their work is often described as playful and inventive.

Sean O'Hagan Sean O'Hagan (born 1959) is an Irish singer, songwriter, and arranger who leads the avant-pop band the High Llamas, which he founded in 1992. He is also known for being one half of the songwriting duo (with Cathal Coughlan) in Microdisney and f ...

, photography critic for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', talks about their shared instinct for often freeform exploration: the willingness to follow an idea where it leads, not in order to exhaust it, but simply to see where it leads". Together with Martin Parr they worked as editors and curators on ''The Chinese Photobook'' (2015), which tells the history of China from 1900 up to the present in photography books.

Books

Monographs

*''Is Still Searching.'' Self-published, 2006. *''Empty Bottles.'' Veenman, 2007. With texts by Hans Moleman and Floris-Jan van Luyn. *''Don't smile now... Save it for Later!'' London:

, 2008. *''Portfolio, Click to Add Subtitle.'' London: Blurb, 2009. With text by

. *''Lu Xiaoben.'' Beijing: Badger and Press, 2010. *''Tokyo Tokyo.'' Baden, Switzerland: Kodoji in association with Archive of Modern Conflict, 2010. *''Aaaaaaao~.'' Beijing: Badger and Press, 2011. *''Hits.'' Amsterdam: Fw:Books, 2013. With contributions by Sean O'Hagan, Bohm/Kobayashi, Merel Bem, Diane Smyth, dewham5, Tom Claxton, Michiel Goudswaard and others.

Books edited

*''The Chinese Photobook.'' New York:

Aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

, 2015. With

. With text by Gu Zheng, Stephanie Tung, Raymund Lum,

and Ruben Lundgren.

Exhibitions

* 2008/2009: ''ParrWorld,'' touring exhibition, Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2008; Breda Design Museum, The Netherlands, 2008; Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, 2009; Baltic, Gateshead, UK, 2009. *2011: ''Other I:'', Hotshoe Gallery, London, with

Alec Soth Alec Soth (born 1969) is an American photographer, based in Minneapolis. Soth makes "large-scale American projects" featuring the midwestern United States. ''New York Times'' art critic Hilarie M. Sheets wrote that he has made a "photographic care ...

and

Viviane Sassen Viviane Sassen (born 1972) is a Dutch artist living in Amsterdam. She is a photographer who works in both the fashion and fine art world. She is known for her use of geometric shapes, often abstractions of bodies. She has been widely published an ...

, curated by

Aaron Schuman Aaron Schuman (born 1977) is an American photographer, writer, curator and educator based in the United Kingdom. His books of photography include ''Folk'' (2016), ''Slant'' (2019) and ''Sonata'' (2022). Life and work Early life and education Aaron ...

. * 2013: ''Don't Smile Now... Save it for Later!,'' MAI (Montréal, Arts Interculturels), as part of ''Mois de la Photo à Montréal'', with

Tomoko Sawada is a Japanese contemporary feminist photographer and performance artist. She has been included in numerous group shows in Japan, Europe and the US. Her first solo exhibition was in 1997 at Japan's Gallery Chat. In 2004 she was awarded the presti ...

. * 2013: ''One Group Show'' (solo),

Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam Foam or Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam is a photography museum located at the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The museum has four different exhibitions at any given time in which different photographic genres are shown, such as document ...

. *2015: ''The Chinese Photobook,''

Ullens Center for Contemporary Art UCCA Center for Contemporary Art or UCCA () is a leading Chinese independent institution of contemporary art. Founded in 2007. Located at the heart of the 798 Art District in, China, it welcomes more than one million visitors a year. Originally k ...

, Beijing, China. * 2015: ''The Chinese Photobook,''

The Photographers' Gallery The Photographers' Gallery was founded in London by Sue Davies opening on 14 January 1971, as the first public gallery in the United Kingdom devoted solely to photography. It is also home to the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, established in ...

, London.

Collections

WassinkLundgren's work is held in the following public collections: *

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

, Amsterdam. *

Fotomuseum Winterthur Fotomuseum Winterthur is a museum of photography in Winterthur, Switzerland. History The museum was founded in 1993 and is dedicated to photography as art form and document, and as a representation of reality. Fotomuseum Winterthur is an art g ...

, Winterthur, Switzerland.

References

External links

* {{ACArt Dutch photographers Art duos Dutch expatriates in England Dutch expatriates in China Utrecht School of the Arts alumni 1981 births 1983 births Living people