Foam_Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam presents Concrete Dreams, a Foam_3h exhibition by Dieuwertje Komen and Elian Somers in which the photographers offer their vision of the urban landscape. The pictures are exhibited in a variety of ways: Somers presents her work in an installation using light boxes and brief texts, while Komen combines her photos with a text essay written by architect Martino Tattara.

Somers and Komen have the same perspective: architecture and urban infrastructure. Somers examines the ideologies that play a role in this field and the resultant imagery. Komen reflects on the extraordinary in the everyday urban landscape by looking at the connection between architecture and urban infrastructure. Somers and Komen offer their subjective view of the city by arranging their photos in specific ways and by combining views of different cities.

In 2009, Dieuwertje Komen visited five medium-sized cities: Bordeaux, Kosice, Pilzn and Mons. She was commissioned by the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam to visit the cities that had applied to become the European Capital of Culture. Komen has arranged her photos of the various cities randomly to create a tour that constantly changes: it is not confined to a single city, instead it says something about the urban situation in medium-sized European cities today.

In Dream Like It Used To Be, Elian Somers examines the post-war utopian urban landscapes of the modern age, such as Brasilia and Cumbernauld (Scotland). Text and image provide a double reflection on the urban landscape, its architecture, the utopia, the utopian ideology and the imagery connected with this. Modern cities around the world have been planned, with varying results. Her starting point for Dream Like It Used To Be is The Netherlands, where the utopian urban landscape is now being demolished. As the buildings disappear, along with the post-war modernist urban planning, it is not just the architecture that vanishes, the ideas and ideals on which this was based are also gone. 

Elian Somers (b. 1975, Sprang-Capelle) graduated in Architecture in 2000 at Delft University, continuing her studies at Academie St. Joost in Breda where she graduated in 2007 with an MA in Photography. Since then she has shown work in various group exhibitions, including TENT (2009 Rotterdam), Nederlands Fotomuseum (2008 Rotterdam), and Fotofrühling (2008 Kassel). She has also published work in Fw: and Tubelight. Dieuwertje Komen (b. 1979, Schaijk) graduated in Photography at Academie St. Joost in Breda in 2005. She has shown work in TENT (2005 Rotterdam), at the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (2007) and the Nederlands Architectuur Instituut (2005 and 2007). In 2007, Komen won second prize for her contribution to the Gebouwgezichten exhibition. Komen is an active member of Stichting Fw:.

This exhibition is an Fw: photography collective initiative and forms part of a series of duo presentations. The duos are made up of photographers with similar interests who present this in different ways.

Concrete Dreams has been made possible by SBK Amsterdam, de Van Bijlevelt Stichting and Rijnja Repro.