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Suriname is the only country in South America where Dutch is spoken. Formerly known as Dutch Guiana, it is located between French Guiana and Guyana, on the continent’s northeast coast, and gained full independence in 1975. If the national police marching band seems like an unlikely subject for a photo book, it is only because foreigners do not understand the social and political role this band plays in Surinamese society. It provides music for both official and private events and is considered an important part of the cultural scene in a country that has recently established its own independent identity.
The book can be considered the “companion book” to Afra Jonker’s film of the same name, but it is a separate creation by photographer Sara Blokland and designer Willem van Zoetendaal. Like many contemporary photography books, it is a multimedia production, in that Blokland’s photographs of the orchestra are paired with historical photographs drawn from their archives. These are combined with her exhaustive documentation of the current orchestra, which begins with official portraits of the thirty-two members, followed by images of the orchestra playing or rehearsing, and then details of their instruments, uniforms, and insignia, photographed in a freer style. In fact, the book presents three or four styles or genres that respond to one another in a typically Dutch manner. It is, in fact, the Police Band’s “corporate book,” and Van Zoetendaal employs Dutch techniques for creating corporate books, with blocks of images occupying nearly the entire page, as well as numerous smaller images arranged in a grid, which not only enliven the book but also visually capture the rhythm of the music.
Published by Boa Producties, 2010
132 pages
21 x 29.5 cm
ISBN: 978-90-72532-06-0
Suriname is the only country in South America where Dutch is spoken. Formerly known as Dutch Guiana, it is located between French Guiana and Guyana, on the continent’s northeast coast, and gained full independence in 1975. If the national police marching band seems like an unlikely subject for a photo book, it is only because foreigners do not understand the social and political role this band plays in Surinamese society. It provides music for both official and private events and is considered an important part of the cultural scene in a country that has recently established its own independent identity.
The book can be considered the “companion book” to Afra Jonker’s film of the same name, but it is a separate creation by photographer Sara Blokland and designer Willem van Zoetendaal. Like many contemporary photography books, it is a multimedia production, in that Blokland’s photographs of the orchestra are paired with historical photographs drawn from their archives. These are combined with her exhaustive documentation of the current orchestra, which begins with official portraits of the thirty-two members, followed by images of the orchestra playing or rehearsing, and then details of their instruments, uniforms, and insignia, photographed in a freer style. In fact, the book presents three or four styles or genres that respond to one another in a typically Dutch manner. It is, in fact, the Police Band’s “corporate book,” and Van Zoetendaal employs Dutch techniques for creating corporate books, with blocks of images occupying nearly the entire page, as well as numerous smaller images arranged in a grid, which not only enliven the book but also visually capture the rhythm of the music.
Published by Boa Producties, 2010
132 pages
21 x 29.5 cm
ISBN: 978-90-72532-06-0