Biography

2024 A spread photograph and writing from De metende mens / Counting on Nature are weekly published by de Volkskrant during December 2023 and January 2024, added with video footage online. Solo exhibition European Fields & Minor Mysteries at In Camera Gallery in Paris. (January 18 - March 23)

2023 Solo exhibition European Fields - The landscape of Lower League Football at Maison de la Culture Amiens (Oct 17 - 31 Dec). Solo exhibition Minor Mysteries / Hollandse velden at Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen (Jan 14 - Feb 18). Continues working on De metende mens / Counting on Nature.

2022 Solo exhibition Minor Mysteries at Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center in Budapest, Hungary, curated by Claudia Küssel. (Sept 16 – Dec 23). The starting point of the exhibition Minor Mysteries is the series of street photographs that Van der Meer shot in 1984-86 in Budapest, a part of which was exhibited at the Photography Gallery in Váci Street in 1986 and appeared in book form under the title Quirk of Fate (1987). A predominantly new selection from these works is presented alongside a selection of photographs, videos, and texts from later projects. Paricipates in Breda Photo 2022 with Time to Change, outdoor exhibition of 8 selected photographs (3mx5m) and a video installation.

2021 Group exhibition Photo Ireland Bite the Hand that Feeds You with video installation Time to Change. Final year teaching documentary photography at KABK Royal Academie of Art, The Hague.

2020 Working in commission for H+N+S Landscape architects on a publication for their 30-year anniversary. H+N+S Landscape Architects is a landscape architecture design office that contributes to a meaningful relationship between man and environment and functions as a laboratory, focused on cooperation and innovation.

2019 Started new project De metende mens – The Measuring Men. Over the past two decades humanity took a more accurate look to his living environment, because of an increasing concern about developments in nature. A spread photograph and writing are weekly published by de Volkskrant during September and October 2019. Working in commission for Rijkswaterstaat and ProRail on Multi-Year Program for Defragmentation. MJPO takes care of defragmenting nature by installing structures such as ecoducts, ecoculverts, wildlife tunnels and banks along existing infrastructure that are easily passable for wildlife.

2018 Solo exhibition De Koe - het grazen voorbij (The Cow - Beyond Grazing) at  Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar, June 30 - October 28. Final presentation of project around the changing world of the Dutch cow. Photography, video-installations and writing. Release of the book Het moet anders - Time to Change. (208 p, Paradox Publishers) Participates in group-exhibition De Mix, Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam from September 14. Guest in Fotogasten, Lantaren Venster, Rotterdam. Group-exhibition at FOLA, Buenos Aires. Group exhibition 'Het trage lage land' Museum MORE, Gorssel.

2017 Book launch Het Koeienparadijs (Cow Paradise). Text Bibi Dumon Tak, photographs HvdM. Portraits of cows and writing on the incredible stories of 46 animals in a cows' retirement home.

2016 Exhibition De Koe (The Cow) at Fries Museum in Leeuwarden, a collaboration with the Nederlands Fotomuseum. Pictures from Cas Oorthuys from his book Rundvee (1948) exhibited with Hans van der Meer's work in progress. Starts ten episodes of a two-weekly column Het moet anders in de Volkskrant, a spread photo and text on the changing world around the Dutch cow. 
Participates in group exhibition Strange and Familiar at the Barbican Art Centre in London and at the Manchester Art Gallery. Britain as revealed by International Photographers, curated by Martin Parr.  

2015 Starts to photograph the changing world of the Dutch cow, commissioned by the Nederlands Fotomuseum for project De Mix. Contemporary project alongside a project from the archive of the museum, a collection of photographs for a book about dairy farming. They were published in 1948 in Rundvee and made by the legendary Dutch photographer Cas Oorthuys, who was commissioned just after WOII by the Ministry of Agriculture. 
Participates in a group exhibition Italy Inside Out at the Palazzo della Ragione Fotografia in Milan, International Photographers working in Italy. 
Book Antwerpse velden released with the film on DVD.

2014 Exhibition Nederland - België at Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Work in commission on the border area of The Netherlands and Belgium. 
Group exhibition On the Move, with The Netherlands – Off the shelf at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam on acquisition museum collection.
Exhibition ZIMMER FREI at Culturele Buitenplaats Kranenburg, Bergen Noord-Holland. Document about towns and villages along the coast, commissioned by County Noord-Holland and Provinciale Atlas Noord-Holland. 
Participates with a selection from The Netherlands – off the Shelf in group exhibition Small Universe at the Rencontres D'Arles edition 2014, curated by Erik Kessels. Participates in group exhibitionThe Other Side, Noorderlicht, Groningen. Selection images QUIRK OF FATE.

2013 Commission for Document Nederland by the Rijksmuseum about the border area of The Netherlands and Belgium. Group exhibition of Dutch artists at gallery Schlifka Molina in Buenos Aires. 
Exhibition large panorama format photos and a video-project of amateur football in Antwerp, MAS, Antwerp, Belgium.

2012 Presentation The Netherlands – off the Shelf at the National Architecture Institute in Rotterdam. Almost hundred images of middle towns, combined with a catalogue images of street furniture. The book The Netherlands – off the Shelf  (Ydoc Publishing, 2012) is launched as well. 
Commissioned by County Noord-Holland and Provinciale Atlas Noord-Holland to photograph towns and villages along the coast. 
Commissioned by the Antwerp museum MAS to make large panorama sized photos and a video-project of amateur football in Antwerp, exhibited from May 2013 at MAS.

2011 Commissioned by the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant to write a monthly column called Het raadsel Nederland (The Puzzeling Netherlands) in which Van der Meer, in the same wry style as his photos, describes how the Netherlands as it is came to exist; the Netherlands with which everyone is familiar but have never seen like this before.
Starts teaching documentary photography at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (KABK).

2010 The Dutch Photo institute (Nfi) acquires Hollandse Velden (Dutch Fields) where the negatives are high quality scanned and preserved. Commissioned by the Dutch magazine Hollands Diep to work with the Dutch journalist and writer Joris van Casteren on a monthly series Droomsteden (Dream Cities).
Commissioned by SKOR (Dutch Foundation for Art and Public Domain) to work on Ten Ways to Stay Down Injured for Terreinwinst. 

2009 Retrospective exhibition Work & Play at The Netherland Fotomuseum in Rotterdam. Starts photographing the changing appearance of Dutch towns where, in recent decades, a huge amount was built.

2008 Retrospective exhibition Work & Play at Camera Austria, Kunsthaus Graz. European Fields exhibitions in several European cities: Göteborg, Sweden at the Museum of World Culture, Florence, Italy at Brancolini Grimaldi and at the Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland. 
Commissioned by the Biennale Noord-Holland to photograph the overgrowth of Noord-Holland and by the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment to make a series about 50 years of National Buffer Zones.

2007 Photographs of sheep for publication Schapen tellen (Counting Sheep) at Nieuw Amsterdam Publishers, a cardboard book for children. (Several reprints appeared at Gottmer Publishers, including an English edition). 
Artist Choice at Institut Néerlandais, group exhibition of selected Dutch artists by Han Nefkens, portraits of animals.

2006 Commission by Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea to make a video of amateur football around Milan, Italy.

Launch European Fields - The landscape of Lower League Football (SteidlMACK, London 2006). 89 photographs in color of amateur football in twenty-two different European countries. The paperback edition (21x29.7cm) is published in Dutch, English, French and German (Dutch paperback published by De Verbeelding Publishers). Hardback edition (26.7x38cm) in English.
The traveling exhibition European Fields - The landscape of Lower League Football is produced with Paradox Foundation and launched at the museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.  Presentation of Campi di Calciatori at Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea. European Fields exhibitionds at the Fotografie Forum International, Frankfurt and the Timezone8 Gallery in Beijing.

2005 Travels in Europe to several countries to work on European Fields. Starts a monthly column Dieren (Animals) in Dutch newspaper magazine NRC M.

2004 In March Go West Young Man is shown at Colette in Paris. Invited by curator Martin Parr to participate at Rencontres d’Arles 2004. Produces new work Foot en Provençe, video and photographs on amateur football in the Provençe, commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication (CNAP) and Rencontres d'Arles 2004. 
Commissioned by Silo Gallery in collaboration with Centro Português de Fotografia in Porto to work on amateur football in and around Porto. Campo de Futbol (24 min. video and photographs) is exhibited in Norteshopping during Euro-2004. Hollandse Velden – Dutch Fields and KEEPERS are exhibited in Centro Português de Fotografia at the same time during EC2000.
Exhibition Foot en Provençe in July-September 2004 during the Rencontres d’Arles, together with Hollandse Velden (Dutch Fields) and the video Flemish Fields.
Commissioned by the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television in Bradford to work in the Bradford area on amateur-football, this resulted in 16 photographs and a video (24 min.). The work was exhibited in the museum from January 28th 2005, together with Hollandse Velden (Dutch Fields) and the video’s Flemish Fields and Saturday Afternoon-Sunday Morning. 
Invited by NRC-Handelsblad to travel through the countryside in The Netherlands during one month in summer. Photographs and writings alongside about the dominant culture in the Netherlands are published on the last page of the newspaper. The book Achterland (Hinterland) appeared in November 2004 (De Verbeelding Publishers, 36 c. photo’s and text). 

2003 Invited by Hertha Stiftung from Hertha BSC and International in Berlin to work on amateur football in Brandenburg. Exhibition and publication Große Träume in Kürze Hosen, with Anne van Gelder, Julian Germain and Jorrit 't Hoen, in November 2003 in Berlin. 
Commissioned by the Amsterdam Art Foundation to make panoramas in Amsterdam. A special box was designed by Erik Kessels with 8 panoramas, digital c-prints produced in an edition of 100. 
Go West Young Man exhibited in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in the period May-July 2003, together with the launch of the documentary film Go West Young Man. at the Filmmuseum Amsterdam.

2002 Exhibition European Eyes on Japan in Okayama City in May 2002 and in Brugge, Belgium, during Brugge Cultural Capital of Europe. 
Travels in September to the USA to work on Go West Young Man., commissioned by Pieter van Huystee Film-production and Arts & Ex’s Foundation to make photographs alongside the documentary film Go West Young Man by Peter Delpeut and Mart Dominicus. Producing large panoramas of wide American landscapes with on distance a tiny cowboy on a horse. 
Invited by KesselsKramer to take photographs for a book alongside the production of documentary film The Other Final in Thimpu, Bhutan. The game between the two lowest countries on the Fifa-ranking, Montserrat and Bhutan, was initiated by Johan Kramer and Matthijs de Jongh from KesselsKramer. The match was played in Bhutan on the same day as the final of the World Cup in Japan. The book The Other Final (De Verbeelding Publishers, 2002) came out later that year.

2001 Publication KEEPERS (De Verbeelding publishers, 1999); 38 color photographs of goalkeepers, waiting in front of their goal in Dutch and Belgium landscapes.
Starts a weekly photo column in de Volkskrant on recreational sports in The Netherlands. Travels to Japan, invited by Japan Fest to participate in the project European Eyes on Japan. Works in the prefecture of Okayama in Japan on a series of portraits from local people, posing on a distance at different locations. 

2000 The video and photographs of Flemish Fields shown at the Netherlands Photo instituut. te (Nfi) in Rotterdam and in St.Jan-hospital, Brugge during the Euro 2000 tournament. Founding of the magazine Useful Photography, with Hans Aarsman, Claudie de Cleen, Julian Germain and Erik Kessels, Useful Photography #1 is launched.
Publication Amsterdams Verkeer – Amsterdam Traffic (De Verbeelding Publishers 2000, 32 black and white panoramas). Dutch Fields and video Flemish Fields at Kyoto National Museum in Japan, as part of exhibition STILL/MOVING. Invited by Encontros da Imagem in Braga to make panorama of the city.

1999 Works on Vlaamse Velden - Flemish Fields, observations in photographs and video of amateur football in villages around Aalst, Belgium, commissioned by the foundation Holland-Belgium / Belgium-Holland. 
Starts taking photographs of amateur football-games in Europe for the football-monthly JOHAN. Every month a double-spread photograph is published from a game in mostly lower divisions, which shows an overview of the football situation in the foreground and the local setting in the background. 
Commissioned to work in Beijing China for the project City-bikes in Beijing. Dutch and Chinese photographers were invited by the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst and The Beijing People’s Organization for Friendship with Foreign Countries for this project (with Hans Aarsman, Ari Versluis en Elly Uyttenbroek). Panorama photographs and video-installation Beijing on a Bicycle, presented in June 2000 at the Historical Museum Amsterdam. In 2000 exhibited in Beijing (Forbidden City). A selection of 
Invited by Centro Portugues de Fotografiá in Porto to take panorama-photographs of the city Porto. The work formed part of the exhibition Rondom Porto in the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, March-April 2000. (In 2002 the photographs were shown at the Centro Portugues de Fotografiá in Porto.)
Invited by the Fotofestival Naarden to photograph animals in Dutch landscapes. The photos were exhibited during the Fotofestival Naarden. A year later the series was published in Dierenleven (De Verbeelding publishers, 2000, 8 colour photographs).

1998 The first edition of the album Hollandse Velden (Dutch Fields) (De Verbeelding Publishers, 1998, 68 photographs in colour, text Jan Mulder) came out during the World Cup in France 1998. A second edition came out later that year, as the first was sold out in one month. The photographs were first exhibited during the World Cup in France 1998 at the Institut Néerlandais in Paris. In December 1998 the Hollandse Velden (Dutch Fields) exhibition was presented in the Nederlands Foto Instituut in Rotterdam. Then amongst other places in Kyoto National Museum (Japan, 2000), the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2001), the Centro Português de Fotografia in Porto (2004) and during Les Rencontres d’Arles 2004. A third edition of Hollandse Velden (Dutch Fields) appeared in 2001 and in 2004 Dutch Fields appeared, the English version of the album.

1996 Commissioned by the Academisch Ziekenhuis Groningen to photograph the city Groningen in color panoramas. The photos formed part of the album Groningen van A tot Z (Paradox, 1997).

1995-1998 Starts taking photographs of low division amateur-football games. He went out looking for football in its original form, as it had started more than hundred years ago: a piece of land, 22 players, and no spectators around the pitch, just a horse in the next meadow. The image is far away from the image we know from professional football.

1994-1995 Works on a series panorama-photographs in black and white of Amsterdam traffic. The pictures of the sometimes hilarious situations in the inner city of Amsterdam were exhibited in 1995 during Fotofestival Naarden. Later that year they were shown in the Amsterdam Municipal Archive. 

1991-1993 Taking photographs of workers from various production-factories in Holland. By putting the accent in his images on the body-language of the work now-a-days, the photographer shows that in a modern technological society the expression ‘labour’ lost a lot of it’s originally physical meaning. Over 80 of the black and white photographs were published in the album WERK (WORK) (De Verbeelding Publishers, 1993).

1989 Stays three weeks at the world-famous ballet academy Agrippina Vaganova of Saint Petersburg, commissioned by Holland Festival. Photographed the intensive education and master-classes at the 250 years old institute. The photographs were published in the album Grand Pas Classique (Fragment, 1989), together with the ones taken in the American School of Ballet in New York by Michaël Ferron. Exhibition during Holland Festival in June at Stopera. Visit to Odessa in November 1989, following trail of Paustovsky.

1988 Selecting archival photographs of football at Spaarnestadarchief, together with writer and former Anderlecht and Ajax player Jan Mulder; published as INTERLAND (Focus Publishers, 1988).

1987 Wins a World Press Photo award in Daily Life category for Budapest series. Publication QUIRK OF FATE (Bert Bakker publisher), 50 Hungarian street photographs in b&w.

1984-1986 Taking street photographs in Budapest. Exhibition Utcákepek - Streetphotographs in September 1986 at the Fotómüvészeti Galéria in the Váci Utcá in Budapest.

1985 Exhibition street photographs at Prentenkabinet Leiden Een stap in stilte – A step in silence.

1983-1984 Taking street photographs Leiden. 

1983-1986 Study visual communication at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam.