The Suzanne Biederberg Gallery is proud to present the first Dutch solo exhibition of photographer Désirée van Hoek.

Van Hoek achieved international recognition in 2015 with her photobook SKID ROW, an intimate portrait of the poorest neighbourhood of Los Angeles where thousands of homeless people live.

In her book van Hoek focuses on portraits and possessions of the homeless, and on the buildings and structures which form their surroundings. A source of inspiration for her series was a study by the American Professor Larry Zimmerman about the material culture of the homeless.

Over the past few years, van Hoek has returned to Skid Row many times, most recently for work on a second book which covers the rapid gentrification of Downtown LA. In this exhibition for the Suzanne Biederberg Gallery, we present an overview of her old as well as her new works.

Van Hoek’s SKID ROW photography and book were exhibited at Paris Photo, the WUHO gallery in Hollywood, and her book in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Swiss Foundation of Photography Winterthur and Unseen Amsterdam. SKID ROW is in numerous public and private collections including the Julius Shulman Institute (Los Angeles) and has been purchased by the libraries of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Yale, UCLA, Princeton, Harvard and the Getty Research Institute.

SKID ROW — her book which features an introduction by the LA Times journalist Gale Holland — was enthusiastically reviewed by international publications like the LA Times, LA Review of Books, The Huffington Post, Purple, Libération, De Morgen and Knack. In the Netherlands it was selected as one the Best Book Designs of the Netherlands and Belgium 2015 (Bestverzorgde Boeken).

Désirée Van Hoek (1966) studied photography at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Utrecht and the Royal Academy in the Hague. Before turning to more personal work she was a successful fashion photographer for several Dutch designers and published in the Volkskrant magazine and Blvd.