exhibition

The Underground Camera

Foam presents The Underground Camera, an exhibition that features work from Dutch photographers who captured the consequences of the German occupation during the 1944-45 ‘famine winter’ in Amsterdam.

The exhibition The Underground Camera is inspired by the celebrations of Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary and 80 years of liberation.

With their photographs, The Underground Camera group made a significant contribution to the image of the Second World War. The photographers were recruited by members of the resistance, with the aim of informing the Dutch government in London. They worked independently and under the dangerous conditions of an occupied city, with hard-to-obtain, often poor-quality equipment. The exhibition provides an impressive picture of the consequences of hunger and cold in the dismantled Amsterdam at the end of the war.

The group of photographers included Cas Oorthuys, Emmy Andriesse, Charles Breijer, Kryn Taconis, and Ad Windig, among others.

Twee vrouwen op de terugweg van een hongertocht, begin 1945
Twee vrouwen op de terugweg van een hongertocht, begin 1945Cas Oorthuys / Nederlands Fotomuseum
Illegale opname vanuit fietstas van commandopost Kriegsmarine, genomen vanaf het Emmaplein de Emmalaan in, Amsterdam, 1944
Illegale opname vanuit fietstas van commandopost Kriegsmarine, genomen vanaf het Emmaplein de Emmalaan in, Amsterdam, 1944Charles Breijer / Nederlands Fotomuseum
Afsluiting Jodenbuurt bij de Waag, Nieuwmarkt, Amsterdam, 1941
Afsluiting Jodenbuurt bij de Waag, Nieuwmarkt, Amsterdam, 1941Charles Breijer / Nederlands Fotomuseum

UNESCO includes The Underground Camera in Memory of the World Register

The Underground Camera is the first photographic legacy ever to receive this prestigious distinction.

For more information or press requests, please contact our press office at pressoffice@foam.org.

The Underground Camera is the result of a close collaboration with the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies. A publication by the same name, written by NIOD-researchers René Kok and Erik Somers, was released in March 2025. The exhibition has been co-curated by Hripsimé Visser, former curator of photography at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, in collaboration with exhibition designer Jeroen de Vries.

This exhibition has been made possible by the generous support of Vfonds. V Fund is the National Fund for Peace, Freedom and Veterans.

The images from this exhibition are on loan from, among others, the Maria Austria Instituut (MAI), the NIOD Institute for war, holocaust and genocide studies, the National Museum of Photography in Rotterdam (NFM) and the Special Collections of the Leiden University Libraries


A black and white photo showing a man covering a camera hiddden inside his jacket

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The Underground Camera