Ilona Langbroek (1970)
Ilona Langbroek is a Dutch fine art photographer based in Hilversum, The Netherlands. She graduated with honors from the Fotoacademie in Amsterdam.
Her acclaimed series Silent Loss is a deeply personal body of work rooted in her family’s history in the former Dutch East Indies. The Netherlands’ long and complex colonial ties to the region have left profound emotional and cultural traces. Langbroek’s work explores the loss of identity experienced by those who were forced to leave their homeland after Indonesian independence, and the quiet persistence of this emotional legacy.
Through poetic and metaphorical imagery, Langbroek invites viewers into a dreamlike recollection of the Dutch East Indies—a place of warmth and beauty, but also of violence and displacement. Her photographs evoke a sense of nostalgia and melancholy, portraying a lost world that exists between memory and imagination.
Using strong contrasts between light and shadow, Langbroek creates a twilight atmosphere—a metaphor for the fading past. Her use of chiaroscuro and soft, painterly lighting evokes the style of 17th-century Dutch masters like Vermeer and Rembrandt, and the dramatic contrasts of Caravaggio, yet her work remains distinctly her own.
As curator Zelda Cheatle noted, “Ilona Langbroek is the discovery of 2021 for me.”
Langbroek’s work is part of both private and public art collections, and is regularly exhibited at major international art fairs and galleries.
Upcoming and Current Exhibitions
2025
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27–30 March, Art Rotterdam, Ahoy, Rotterdam – Netherlands
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10 April–August, Blooming, group exhibition, Bildhalle Zürich – Switzerland
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23–27 April, The Photography Show presented by AIPAD, New York – United States
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15–18 May, Photo London, Somerset House, London – United Kingdom
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22 May–August, Premieres, group exhibition, Bildhalle Amsterdam – Netherlands
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18–21 September, Unseen Amsterdam – Netherlands
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13–16 November, Paris Photo, Grand Palais, Paris – France
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02–09 November, PAN Amsterdam, RAI, Amsterdam – Netherlands
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02–07 December, Art Miami, Miami – United States
Exhibitions
2024
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Art Miami, Miami – United States
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PAN Amsterdam, RAI, Amsterdam – Netherlands
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Paris Photo, Grand Palais, Paris – France
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Peter Fetterman Gallery, The Great Woman Photographers, Santa Monica – United States
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Bildhalle, Solo exhibition Terra Incognita, Zürich – Switzerland
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Photo London, Somerset House, London – United Kingdom
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AIPAD, Park Avenue, New York – United States
2023
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Solo exhibition Remembrance, Bildhalle Amsterdam – Netherlands
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PAN Amsterdam, RAI, Amsterdam – Netherlands
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Paris Photo, Grand Palais Éphémère, Paris – France
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The San Francisco Fall Show, San Francisco – United States
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Bildhalle, The Showroom, group exhibition, Zürich – Switzerland
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Photo London – United Kingdom
2022
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Bildhalle, The Showroom, group exhibition, Amsterdam – Netherlands
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Exhibition Traces, Museum Hilversum – Netherlands
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PAN Amsterdam, Art Fair – Netherlands
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Phillips Auction, London – United Kingdom
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Photo London – United Kingdom
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Photo Basel – Switzerland
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Bildhalle, Ocean, group exhibition, Amsterdam – Netherlands
2021
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Solo exhibition Terra Incognita, Bildhalle Hazenstraat, Amsterdam – Netherlands
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Anna Singer Art, Singer Museum, Laren – Netherlands
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PAN Amsterdam, Art Fair – Netherlands
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Photo Basel – Switzerland
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Unseen Amsterdam – Netherlands
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Photo London – United Kingdom
2020
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Photo Basel Virtual 2.0 – Switzerland
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Photo London Digital – United Kingdom
2019
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Expo FOS, Loods 6, Amsterdam – Netherlands
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Fresh Eyes, Tbilisi Photo Festival, slide presentation – Georgia
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Fresh Eyes, Les Rencontres d’Arles, slide presentation – France
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Fresh Eyes, Photo Basel, Volkshaus Basel, slide presentation – Switzerland
2017
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Expo Het Oog, Fotoacademie, Amsterdam – Netherlands
Publications & Interviews
2021
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A Photographic Life, podcast – United Kingdom
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Het Parool, Special PAN 2021 – Netherlands
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NRC, Fine arts review – Netherlands
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L'Oeil de la Photographie – France
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Medium Format Magazine, cover, interview, portfolio – International
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PF Magazine, cover – Netherlands
2019
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Moesson Magazine, cover, interview, portfolio – Netherlands
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Shutr Magazine, interview, portfolio – Netherlands
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PF Magazine, interview, portfolio – Netherlands
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Uncoated, Emerging Photo Talent platform – Germany
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Kiekie Tabloid, interview – Netherlands
Nominations & Awards
2019
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Selected Fresh Eyes, book presenting 100 greatest emerging photographers in Europe
2018
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Silver Award, The Portrait Masters, international award – United States
Presentations
2019
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Podium MH, Museum Hilversum, oral presentation – Netherlands
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Photoplaza, Kasteel Woerden, oral presentation – Netherlands
Education
2015–2019 – Fotoacademie, Amsterdam (Graduated with honors)
1996–2000 – Akademie Vogue, Amsterdam