Eva Mels will be Photographer in Residence at the HvA in academic year 2025/26. Every year, an HvA jury selects one promising young photographer from among the graduates of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. This artist will make art photos on assignment for an academic year at the HvA.
In her exhibition “Fossils of the Future”, Eva Mels demonstrates aesthetic value, experimentalism and mastery, for which the jury greatly appreciates. In her work, she captures and manipulates digitally generated images analogously. In doing so, she asks questions about authorship, authenticity and technology. By playing and experimenting with old and new technology, the artist invites her audience to become aware of nuance, complexity and the non-binary. It is not either real or unreal, it is not either digital or analogue. The Parool recently called Eva Mels a talent not to be missed.
The HvA donates a photo to administrators who say goodbye or celebrate an anniversary. A second copy is added to the HvA's art collection. In this way, the HvA not only offers a unique and personal gift, but also enriches the art collection with original work by a talent who was educated in Amsterdam. The Photographer in Residence produces two to three works of art a year. The collaboration offers the young photographer a stage to reach a new audience and further develop within the professional field. This year marks the tenth anniversary of this collaboration between the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and the Hogeschool van Amsterdam.
Photo by Sophia Jiaqi Xu