De ramp | The Flood

De watersnoodramp van 1953 in documentaire fotografie | The Flood of 1953 Documented in Photographs

Book coverDe ramp | The Flood
Book coverDe ramp | The Flood
Book coverDe ramp | The Flood
Book coverDe ramp | The Flood

De Ramp is a book about an earlier book of the same title that was published in 1953, one of the most iconic Dutch photobooks ever published. A total of 600,000 copies were printed, the largest ever print run for a Dutch photobook (compare that to what publishers can expect today!). It came out after the catastrophic flood of February 1953 and had a star cast of photographers, from Maria Austria to Ed van der Elsken to Cas Oorthuys, then all at the beginning of their career, and now part of the canon of twentieth-century documentary photography. Sixty-five years after the disaster the archives were again ploughed through, the original series was reconstructed, and the genesis of the book explored. In its design by Els Kerremans – one of those who came up with the idea – the new book sticks very carefully and respectfully, but certainly not slavishly, to the prototype: the original photographs and negatives have now been beautifully reproduced to modern standards in a combination of four-colour and three Pantone colours (two shades of black and one grey) using stochastic screening. The use of black pages is a reference to the flood as a national catastrophe but also offers an effective backdrop to set off the photographs. The treatment of the iconic cover photo is as respectful as it is fresh and new: an ode to the original photographers by re-presenting the power of the images. The result is an impressive modern monument to the victims of the greatest disaster to befall the Netherlands in the second half of the twentieth century.

Edition: 2018
Date of publication: January 2018
Author: Els Kerremans, Jacqueline van Paaschen
Language: Dutch, English
Translator: Karen Gamester, Cathy Brickwood
Final editor: Annelies Hess-Bosch (Renoir Editing)
Image editor: Els Kerremans
Photographer: Maria Austria, Eva Besnyö, Mario de Biasi, Jo Bokma, Martien Coppens, Ed van der Elsken, Frits Gerritsen, Henk Nieuwenhuis, Aart Klein, Dolf Kruger, Kees Molkenboer, Cas Oorthuys, Ed van Wijk, Ad Windig
Publisher: Komma / d’jonge Hond, Den Haag
Available through: Webshop, bookshop
Graphic designer: Typography Interiority & Other Serious Matters (Els Kerremans) (Den Haag)
Lithographer: Jan Hoogendijk (RGM) en Gerrit Schreurs, Amsterdam, Den Haag
Printer: NPN Drukkers, Breda
Binder: Boekbinderij Van Mierlo, Nijmegen
Size book block (w x h x d in mm): 220 x 260 x 17
Number of pages: 224
Print run: 1,000
Price: € 57.50
ISBN: 978 94 91525 71 1
Font and foundry: Whitney (Hoefler&Co)
Binding style: Sewn hardback with flat spine, trimmed cover and book block, interior with a fold-out of six pages.
Paper for interior (grammage): 130gsm Munken Polar, Arctic Paper | Antalis
Endpapers (grammage): 170gsm Pop’Set Extra Black, Antalis
Material cover (grammage): 135gsm Curious Matter Black Truffle, over 1,5 mm Eskablack, Antalis, Koninklijke Moorman Karton
Special features: Printed in FM screen, three Pantone colours (two blacks and grey) combined with CMYK, cover and endpapers printed in silver.