Het Kleinste Kamertje: One frame at a time

Lees in het Nederlands

“One frame at a time”  An archive of portraits created over five years, emerging from a practice that resists the instantaneous. Each photograph requires extended exposure time, inviting subjects into a temporal space outside the rhythm of daily life.  In the stillness required by the camera, something shifts. Participants encounter their own breath, involuntary movements, the effort of holding presence. What begins as a technical constraint becomes an unexpected threshold, a pause where accelerated time momentarily suspends.

These images hold traces of that encounter: the micro-tremors of a body attempting stillness, the drift of attention, the strange intimacy of shared duration. They are documents not only of faces, but of time made visible through the body’s resistance to complete control.
The exhibition “one frame at a time” gathers these moments across five years and ongoing, creating a collective portrait of individuals who stepped briefly into a different temporal register,  one measured not by efficiency or capture, but by the analog patience of light meeting emulsion.

about Het Kleinste Kamertje

Het Kleinste was formed (c.2019) by four individuals with a strong interest in analogue photography and darkroom printing. Come mid 2020, and Het Kleinste Kamertje found their base at De Nijverheid, in Utrecht. Their idea was to create a cozy space for people to develop their films and enlarge their negatives to prints. In addition to the craft of analogue photography, they were also idealizing the creation of a social environment. A community, where likeminded individuals can come and share their experiences, knowledge, and learn from each other. Essentially, find an analogue photography “gezelligheid”.

Since then, Het Kleinste Kamertje has built a rapport of collaborations with De Nijverheid, De Voorkamer, Rietveld School, Catharijneconvent Museum, Aliance Francais, Setup, and other creative groups and individuals. Het Kleinste Kamertje has also hosted a series of social and educational events in the form of photowalks, screenings, workshops, and photobooths.

Currently, Het Kleinste Kamertje is working towards the becoming of a Stichting in order to expand their capacities as educators and a community. This is with the help of the community via a funding event.