Phaidon has released a fantastic book called “People of the Twenty-First Century”, which is a comprehensive collection of street photography by Hans Eijkelboom. (Good last name amirite?)
Hans Eijkelboom would hang around areas with lots of pedestrians, often near malls, and look for recurring elements. These could be things like men carrying purses, or couples walking arm in arm, band t-shirts, or gelled hair. He would shoot for anywhere from half an hour to several hours, using a camera hung around his neck and a trigger in his pocket. Later, in his Amsterdam studio he’d arrange the images into grids that he called ‘Photo Notes’.
The book represents two decades of these fascinating studies. It’s hard to look at these images and not chuckle at the idea of individualism. The work is definitely funny but also sort of profoundly sad. Take a look at lots more below!
