Introduction

The jury of the Steenbergen Scholarship 2016, the award for the best photographic graduation work, has nominated five graduation projects of students from art academies. This edition, the jury consists of Caroline von Courten (jury chairman and PhD candidate in photography theory, University of Leiden), Jaap Scheeren (photographer and honorable mention Steenbergen Scholarship 2003), and Henk Wildschut (photographer).

Lion van den Brand (HKU)

Prisoners of war, a point of view

Lion van den Brand could be described as a third-generation victim of war. What started as a personal quest for who his grandfather really was (most importantly a war veteran who served in Indonesia) became a family story recognisable to anyone who themselves, or whose parents or grandparents experienced traumatic events. For Prisoners of war, a point of view, Lion van den Brand worked together with Erik Wiedenhof.

Karl Ketamo (KABK)

Crossing Boundaries / Shifting Landscapes
At an abstract yet very concrete level, Karl Ketamo portrays the mass human migration now flooding the daily news but whose familiar imaging distances the average viewer from what is actually happening. Crossing Boundaries/ Shifting Landscapes is a 3-minute video loop consisting of several films that Ketamo has then edited one over another in such a way as to merge the horizons of these landscape shots.

Kimmo Virtanen (KABK)

Thirty-seconds Love Songs
A surreal animation film reflecting on the earthly troubles of a divided family. Their problems are seen from the perspective of outer space and narrated in the third person, using the parallel between people and trees as a metaphor for domestic peacekeeping.

Kateryna Snizhko (Rietveld)

TINI
A three-dimensional collage to bring abandoned memories back to life. The installation encompasses the outlines of photographs, shadows, whispering and animated projections, brought together as an act of reminiscence. In a metaphorical way, it compares faded memories to abandoned places, where outlines and shadows are the last remaining traces of forgotten memories.

Samuel Otte (KABK)

De Val
The handwritten title on his book which has been crossed out several times immediately points to the doubts central to this project: doubts about his faith that were formed in an orthodox Protestant family. As an autobiographical work about his family, Samuel Otte tells a much bigger story: the generation gap between his religious parents and grandparents and his own generation that questions such beliefs.