Roel Sandvoort knows what he's doing. For thirty years he ran photo agency Hollandse Hoogte, one of the largest photo archives in the Netherlands. In 2016, he founded Santvoort Galerie, officially Fotogalerie Roel Sandvoort, and since then he has been dealing in what he knows best: Dutch photography at its finest.
The gallery has no permanent space, no white walls, no opening hours on the door. Sandvoort works through temporary pop-up locations around the region, through art fairs at home and abroad, and through his online webshop where more than 263 vintage prints are currently for sale. That approach may sound lighthearted, but the offerings are serious. Sandvoort represents collections from the Maria Austria Institute, the Nederlands Fotomuseum and the Stadsarchief. Those are no small names. So the prints he sells are not just reproductions, but original photographic work by people who shaped Dutch visual culture.
Take the signed vintage print of Ajax from 1967, made by Paul Huf, one of the most celebrated Dutch photographers of the 20th century. Or the portrait of André Hazes as a child, captured in 1958 by Eddy Posthuma de Boer, long before Hazes became famous. Pieter Boersma photographed jazz musicians in memorable places: Bill Evans at the Concertgebouw in February 1965, Ben Webster at Paradiso in February 1973. Those are moments you can't recall. The prints can.
Sandvoort represents collections from the Maria Austria Institute, the Dutch Photo Museum and the City Archives. Those are no small names.
It's a gallery for people who know what they want. Not a decorative piece of a photo print, but work with weight, context and a story. The online store is accessible, shipping is free on orders over 299 euros, and those who prefer to look in person keep an eye out for pop-ups and trade shows. For those serious about photography, Sandvoort has thirty years of knowledge and more than two centuries of Dutch photographic work at the ready.