Ilona Langbroek (1970)
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Ilona Langbroek is a Dutch fine art photographer based in Hilversum, the Netherlands. She graduated with honors from the Fotoacademie in Amsterdam.
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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. Her work explores the loss of identity experienced by those who were forced to leave their homeland following Indonesian independence, as well as the quiet persistence of this emotional legacy.
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Through poetic and metaphorical imagery, Langbroek invites viewers into a dreamlike recollection of the Dutch East Indies, a place of warmth and beauty, yet also marked by violence and displacement. Her photographs evoke a sense of nostalgia and melancholy, portraying a lost world that exists between memory and imagination.
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Working with natural light, muted tonalities, and a carefully constructed mise-en-scène, she creates a twilight atmosphere that serves as a metaphor for the fading past. Figures often turn away from the viewer or close their eyes, becoming carriers of an inner state rather than individual portraits.
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Her painterly use of light evokes the intimacy of Dutch Golden Age painting, particularly the work of Vermeer. At the same time, her work resonates with the paintings of Vilhelm Hammershøi, in which light, space, and silence converge to create introspective and contemplative images. While rooted in this painterly tradition, Langbroek transforms this visual language by embedding it within a specific historical and personal context, in which silence carries the weight of memory, loss, and displacement.
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As curator Zelda Cheatle noted, “Ilona Langbroek is the discovery of 2021 for me.”
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Langbroek’s work is part of both private and public collections and is regularly exhibited at major international art fairs and galleries.
Upcoming and Current Exhibitions
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2026​FFa​
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23–26 April, AIPAD, Park Avenue, New York – United States
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14–17 May, Photo London, Olympia, London – United Kingdom
Exhibitions
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2026​
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Photo London, Olympia, London – United Kingdom
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AIPAD, Park Avenue, New York – United States
2025
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Art Miami, Miami – United States
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Paris Photo, Grand Palais, Paris – France
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PAN Amsterdam, RAI, Amsterdam – Netherlands
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Izzy Gallery, group exhibition, Toronto - Canada
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Premieres, group exhibition, Bildhalle Amsterdam – Netherlands
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Photo London, Somerset House, London – United Kingdom
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AIPAD, Park Avenue, New York – United States
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Blooming, group exhibition, Bildhalle Zürich – Switzerland
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Art Rotterdam, Ahoy, Rotterdam – Netherlands
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