Sem Langendijk (b. 1990) grew up in Westerdok 鈥 a dockland district where the canals of Amsterdam meet. The photographer, who studied at the Royal Academy of Art, has long been interested redevelopment of former port cities 鈥 including those in London and New York. Now, presents the artist鈥檚 debut solo show, Haven, which explores the life and character of waterfront developments worldwide 鈥 areas that are rich in social, cultural and political resonance.
Historically, suburbanisation in waterfront areas has resulted in inequality for marginalised communities. As noted in The Glocal Experience, individuals living in such spaces can be 鈥.鈥 The de-industrialisation of New York, for example, resulted in the closure of working piers, factories and warehouses and saw employment drop from 36,000 in the 1950s to 6,000 in 2020. Whilst wealthy city-dwellers were typically able to relocate and move to other districts based on employment opportunities, those who could not afford to move were left behind.
North Amsterdam 鈥 an area in which Langendijk grew up 鈥 is another example of a neighbourhood with a fast-moving and fluctuating history. At the end of the 19th century it was deemed fitting only for ““, yet later welcomed the construction of workers’ housing. Following WWII, the deactivation of central and eastern harbours, whilst the Rhine river, draining into the canals of the city, . By the 1980s, however, government urban development began a process of regeneration 鈥 converting historic industrial sites into residential areas. Langendijk witnessed the effects of gentrification, for instance the eviction of squatters from the Amsterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij (ADM) 鈥 a shipyard once occupied by members of the community. The site acted as a social centre, organising arts events and festivals, presenting itself as a public resource for people from all walks of life. Langendijk photographed ADM in its final years before eviction; a selection of the resulting photographs are now featured in FOAM.
As the photographer writes in his publication Haven (2022, The Eriskay Connection), his work tells the “.” For many Amsterdam residents, the city and its waterfront are no longer liveable. In 2021, the reported prices of existing homes to have increased by 14.6%, whilst numbers of homeless people have doubled in the last decade. Social housing has been significantly impacted, with many associations forced to sell to developers, whilst for young homeowners, only 3.4% can afford a mortgage.
This state of limbo is exemplified in FOAM鈥檚 exhibition, which asks: 鈥渨ho owns a city?鈥 Glossy sky-rise buildings loom over Canary Wharf, contrasted alongside factory ruins of New York鈥檚 Red Hook Grain Terminal. More often than not, images are untitled. In one shot, pastel blue hoarding blends into black scaffolding, marking the shift from abandoned urban centre to glossy new-build. Elsewhere, luxury apartments and modern architecture loom over rippling water. There is a sense of an old world fading, where the act of photography, the very necessity to document, is confirmation of a disappearing space.
Langendijk is a powerful and honest observer, making work that is deeply autobiographical and informed by his own childhood experiences in Amsterdam. In an interview with he notes: 鈥淕oing back to that community was like going back to my childhood and trying to show a more adult perspective.鈥 This perspective is particularly evident in his portraits. In Summer, 2018, for example, a young woman from ADM gazes directly into the camera lens, her brow furrowed slightly, curly hair brushed to one side. Her gaze is cool and unwavering against an unfocused green background. Haven is a space of longing, where continual loss is carried by its subjects and landscapes. The show is fittingly transitory and ever-shifting 鈥 portraits blur into landscapes and faint outlines of vast cityscapes can be glimpsed in reflective windows. As curator Mirjam Kooiman notes, a viewer is invited to 鈥渞ead the city and its urban development, in order to question who is writing the script.鈥
| Until 18 June
Words: Chloe Elliott
Image Credits:
1. Canary Wharf, 2019. c. Sem Langendijk
2. New York Grain Terminal, 2016. c. Sem Langendijk
3. Summer, 2018. c. Sem Langendijk
