Ilona Langbroek (1970)
Stillness, light, memory, and time form the foundation of Ilona Langbroek's photographic practice. Rooted in the layered past of the former Dutch East Indies, her work explores how migration, colonial legacies, and cultural memory continue to shape identities across generations.
A Dutch fine art photographer based in Hilversum, the Netherlands, Langbroek graduated with honors from the Fotoacademie in Amsterdam.
Her acclaimed series Silent Loss emerged from her family's history in the former Dutch East Indies. The Netherlands' long and complex colonial relationship with the region continues to leave profound emotional and cultural traces. Rather than documenting history, Langbroek explores how the consequences of this past continue to resonate across generations through memory, absence, and inherited experiences.
Drawing on personal memory alongside broader cultural histories, Langbroek creates photographs that speak through suggestion rather than explanation. In portraits, still lifes, and interiors, she explores how memory is carried across generations as personal stories become part of a wider collective narrative. Figures often turn away from the viewer or close their eyes, while objects and architectural spaces function as silent witnesses to memory and time.
Working with natural light, muted tonalities, and a carefully composed mise-en-scène, Langbroek creates photographs that seem suspended between reality and imagination. Her painterly use of light recalls the intimacy of Dutch Golden Age painting and resonates with a Northern European sensibility in which light, space, and silence come together in contemplative stillness. Rather than reconstructing history, her photographs evoke its lingering presence through absence, silence, and suggestion.
Langbroek's work has been exhibited internationally at Paris Photo, AIPAD New York, Photo London, Photo Basel, Art Miami, and PAN Amsterdam. Her photographs are held in public and private collections, including The J.P. Morgan Collection and The Møller Collection. Her work was selected by architect Maxime d'Angeac for the interiors of the Orient Express Corinthian and the Orient Express Olympian.
Upcoming and Current Exhibitions
2026FFa
-
23 - 26 April, AIPAD, Park Avenue, New York – United States
-
14 - 17 May, Photo London, Olympia, London – United Kingdom
-
16 - 21 June, Photo Basel, Volkshaus Basel – Switzerland
-
12 - 15 November, Paris Photo, Grand Palais, Paris - France
Exhibitions
2026
-
Paris Photo, Grand Palais, Paris - France
-
Photo Basel, Volkshaus Basel – Switzerland
-
Photo London, Olympia, London – United Kingdom
-
AIPAD, Park Avenue, New York – United States
2025
-
Art Miami, Miami – United States
-
Paris Photo, Grand Palais, Paris – France
-
PAN Amsterdam, RAI, Amsterdam – Netherlands
-
Izzy Gallery, group exhibition, Toronto - Canada
-
Premieres, group exhibition, Bildhalle Amsterdam – Netherlands
-
Photo London, Somerset House, London – United Kingdom
-
AIPAD, Park Avenue, New York – United States
-
Blooming, group exhibition, Bildhalle Zürich – Switzerland
-
Art Rotterdam, Ahoy, Rotterdam – Netherlands
2024
-
Art Miami, Miami – United States
-
PAN Amsterdam, RAI, Amsterdam – Netherlands
-
Paris Photo, Grand Palais, Paris – France
-
Peter Fetterman Gallery, The Great Woman Photographers, Santa Monica – USA
-
Bildhalle, Solo exhibition Terra Incognita, Zürich – Switzerland
-
Photo London, Somerset House, London – United Kingdom
-
AIPAD, Park Avenue, New York – United States
2023
-
Solo exhibition Remembrance, Bildhalle Amsterdam – Netherlands
-
PAN Amsterdam, RAI, Amsterdam – Netherlands
-
Paris Photo, Grand Palais Éphémère, Paris – France
-
The San Francisco Fall Show, San Francisco – United States
-
Bildhalle, The Showroom, group exhibition, Zürich – Switzerland
-
Photo London – United Kingdom
2022
-
Bildhalle, The Showroom, group exhibition, Amsterdam – Netherlands
-
Exhibition Traces, Museum Hilversum – Netherlands
-
PAN Amsterdam, Art Fair – Netherlands
-
Phillips Auction, London – United Kingdom
-
Photo London – United Kingdom
-
Photo Basel – Switzerland
-
Bildhalle, Ocean, group exhibition, Amsterdam – Netherlands
2021
-
Solo exhibition Terra Incognita, Bildhalle Hazenstraat, Amsterdam – Netherlands
-
Anna Singer Art, Singer Museum, Laren – Netherlands
-
PAN Amsterdam, Art Fair – Netherlands
-
Photo Basel – Switzerland
-
Unseen Amsterdam – Netherlands
-
Photo London – United Kingdom
2020
-
Photo Basel Virtual 2.0 – Switzerland
-
Photo London Digital – United Kingdom
2019
-
Expo FOS, Loods 6, Amsterdam – Netherlands
-
Fresh Eyes, Tbilisi Photo Festival, slide presentation – Georgia
-
Fresh Eyes, Les Rencontres d’Arles, slide presentation – France
-
Fresh Eyes, Photo Basel, Volkshaus Basel, slide presentation – Switzerland
2017
-
Expo Het Oog, Fotoacademie, Amsterdam – Netherlands
Publications & Interviews
2021
-
A Photographic Life, podcast – United Kingdom
-
Het Parool, Special PAN 2021 – Netherlands
-
NRC, Fine arts review – Netherlands
-
L'Oeil de la Photographie – France
-
Medium Format Magazine, cover, interview, portfolio – International
-
PF Magazine, cover – Netherlands
2019
-
Moesson Magazine, cover, interview, portfolio – Netherlands
-
Shutr Magazine, interview, portfolio – Netherlands
-
PF Magazine, interview, portfolio – Netherlands
-
Uncoated, Emerging Photo Talent platform – Germany
-
Kiekie Tabloid, interview – Netherlands
Nominations & Awards
2019
-
Selected Fresh Eyes, book presenting 100 greatest emerging photographers in Europe
2018
-
Silver Award, The Portrait Masters, international award – United States
Presentations
2019
-
Podium MH, Museum Hilversum, oral presentation – Netherlands
-
Photoplaza, Kasteel Woerden, oral presentation – Netherlands
Education
2015–2019 – Fotoacademie, Amsterdam (Graduated with honors)
1996–2000 – Akademie Vogue, Amsterdam
I am interested in what remains when history falls silent.
What endures is often unseen, yet quietly present.