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Hans Aarsman (Amsterdam, 27 December 1951 ) is a Dutch author and former photographer. He is best known for his bi-weekly column “The Aarsman Collection” in de Volkskrant, in which he examines press photos like a detective. He also appears regularly on stage, where he engagingly reports on his investigative methods.
Aarsman received the Maria Austria Prize in 1993 and the Hendrik de Vries Prize in 2011.
From 1996 to 2023 he taught at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam.
The Nederlands Fotomuseum has acquired part of Aarsman’s archive; since 2006 portions have been available for private download and A3-size printing.
Since 2004 Aarsman has written his fortnightly de Volkskrant column “The Aarsman Collection”, methodically analysing news photos. For him, the story a picture tells outweighs its aesthetic qualities. Inspired by Sherlock Holmes’s analytical approach, he calls himself a photo-detective. Until 1999 he was also a columnist for NRC.
He has penned several theatre monologues for actors including Tom Jansen, Dirk Roofthooft and Carly Wijs. Josse De Pauw performed his monologue Ruis, about photographer Garry Winogrand. Since 2012 Aarsman has presented his latest discoveries on stage himself.
Together with Erik Kessels, Hans van der Meer and others, Aarsman has edited the magazine Useful Photography (2001–present).
In 2007 he was guest curator for the Stedelijk Museum’s Municipal Acquisitions exhibition “Off the Record”, inviting artists to submit works made from a desire to record something without an explicit artistic goal. Chance and discovery were central themes.
In 2012 he guest-curated the photo exhibition “Thanks to the Bridges” at the Wereldmuseum Amsterdam. The museum asked him to delve into the collection because “he often notices what others overlook, and focuses not only on what is visible but also on what should be there”.
At Galerie Ron Mandos he curated the group show “Decide for Yourself”, bringing together artists who, like Aarsman, reveal how they investigate the world—an exhibition of indexes, surprising finds and even Sesame Street wisdom.
In February 2015 Aarsman was appointed guest curator of UNESCO’s World Heritage Podium.
He was a recurring guest on the Dutch TV talkshow De Wereld Draait Door in 2011, offering original analyses of press photos, and returned to television in 2021 the TV show Beau.
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