How can documentary photography help create awareness or help us understand certain environments, communities, cultures or even the medium itself?

We take a look at projects by three artists that explore how photography can create artistic portrayels of social societies. Myriam Boulos (LB), a 2022 Foam Talent, shows a series of portraits of friends and strangers that have been affected by the blast and economy in Beirut. Rahim Fortune (US) uses documentary photography to ask fundamental questions about American identity. Lastly, Bieke Depoorter (BE) 

explores the complexities of the photographic enterprise, grappling with the relationship between photographer and subject.

The three artists are featured in the online talk 

Navigating the media industry - Photographer's Perspective

. For many photographers today, working on commissions and assignments within the media industry helps to build and contribute to a sustainable career. How can an artist navigate the territory between their own practice and the media industry at large?

From the series Tell The Trees To Smile

Myriam
Boulos

Tell the Trees to Smile

about

Rahim
Fortune

Brothers after wake from the series I can’t stand to see you cry

Father from the series I can’t stand to see you cry

City Finance from the series I can’t stand to see you cry

First Holidays from the series I can’t stand to see you cry

Kerosine lamp from the series I can’t stand to see you cry

ICSTSYC from the series I can’t stand to see you cry

Bieke
Depoorter

Agata, Paris, France, November 2, 2017

Agata, Germaine, Neuilly-Plaissance, France, September 4, 2018

Agata, Paris, France, November 12, 2017

Agata, Beirut, Lebanon, August 3, 2018

Bieke & Agata, Lebanon, August, 2018

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Moscow, 2016

Archive of Public Protests

Urmia salt lake, Iran

On Social Documentary Photography

&ldquo;There is no distance between me and what I photograph.&rdquo; - Nan Goldin

Each month Rialto presents Cracking the Frame, a programme&nbsp;featuring an international selection of critically acclaimed arts documentaries and artists&rsquo; films.&nbsp;Cracking the Frame focuses on the creative intersection between art and film through thought-provoking cinematic portraits of the life and work of established contemporary artists, photographers, filmmakers and global thinkers. This edition's film, Nan Goldin - I Remember Your Face, is introduced by Foam curator Mirjam Kooiman.
Wednesday 20 January 2016, Rialto Amsterdam, 19:30 hrs. NAN GOLDIN &ndash; I REMEMBER YOUR FACE Sabine Lidl&nbsp; Germany | 2013 | 61 min&nbsp; In English and German with English subs Dutch premiere
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pOVWTQnk_do" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
ABOUT&nbsp;THE DOCUMENTARY German director Sabine Lidl composes an intimate portrait of the New York charismatic photographer as she accompanies the artist on a nostalgic journey from Paris to Turin, Vienna and Berlin, where Nan Goldin lived for three years in the 90s and where she re-encounters some of her dearest friends and ex-lovers. As ruthlessly candid as the snapshots that have come to define Goldin as one of the most celebrated and controversial photographers of her generation, Lidl's deeply personal film intertwines slideshows of Goldin's photographs with intimate moments where the artist talks openly about her personal life, work, inspiration and obsessions.
ABOUT NAN GOLDIN In 1985 her ground-breaking series The Ballad of Sexual Dependency portrayed her extended family of artists, drug addicts and drag queens friends as they partied, got high, fought and had sex and, according to the New York Times, "forged a genre, with photography as influential as any in the last 20 years". Now in her sixties Goldin continues to amaze and shock with her transgressive slideshow presentations, exhibitions and books, still true to her motto that &ldquo;my photos originate from relations, not from observations.&rdquo;

<div class="sidebar__content">Première info 
Wednesday 20 January 2016 19.30 hrs. Rialto cinema, Amsterdam
&nbsp;
In English and German with English subtitles
&nbsp;
PRICE &euro;10, regular rate &euro;8,50, reduced rate</div>

Nan Goldin documentary première

Foam Talent Runner-up: Ali Zaraay 

Foam Talent Runner-up: Byron Mohammad Hamzah

Foam Talent Runner-up: Hady Barry

Foam Talent Runner-up:  Mahmoud Abu Hamda

Foam Talent Runner-up:  Manuel Bayo Gisbert

Still from Northern Winds with Jonathas de Andrade - Ammodo Docs

With my art projects, I approach people that historically experience oppression in many different ways. But still, their culture, their tradition, their way of keeping knowledge alive: they represent resistance in many ways.,

Still from the documentary Northern Winds with Jonathas de Andrade

Northern Winds: Artist Jonathas de Andrade’ Fascination with Jangadeiros | Ammodo Docs

watch the documentary

see more

Northern Winds: Jonathas de Andrade’ Fascination with Jangadeiros

Aby Fulani

"Every age has its great loss – for modernism, it was the coherence of the self; for postmodernism, the stability of master narratives – and now, in the 21st century, there is an increasing pressure on the notion of a shared reality."

Mugshots.com, N8, from the series Obscurity, 2016

Mugshots.com, N, from the series Obscurity, 2016

Mugshots.com, N2, from the series Obscurity, 2016

”There is a new way of understanding our times.. a new wave of realism, a new wave of artists who are engaged in political issues. “Evidential Realism” is the realism of today… “

Liz Johnson Artur - of life of love of sex of movement of hope, 2021

Paolo Cirio: Artist of the Post-Panopticon Era

Lisetta Carmi

Hailun Ma

Martin Parr

Event Template

Nadav Kander

Myriam Boulos 

Keerthana Kunnath

, the solo exhibition by Ukrainian photographer and documentary filmmaker 

. Kochetova is a part of a new generation of image-makers who experience the war in Ukraine firsthand and document it from within.

A teenager is setting a checkpoint in the village of Zelene in the Kharkiv region 2022

Foam

A soldier protects a woman in an underground parking lot near the drone strike in Kyiv on 17 October, 2022

Recruit of the 68th Jaeger Brigade during training in the Donetsk region near the front line 2023

The holy icon next to the Molotov cocktail on the checkpoint near the road turn to Irpin Kyiv region 2022

A young recruit of the 92nd brigade during the training course at the shooting range 2025

Julia Kochetova - War is Personal

From the series What's Ours © Myriam Boulos

From the series Revolution © Myriam Boulos

From the series Tell The Trees To Smile © Myriam Boulos

From the series Sexual Fantasies © Myriam Boulos

From the series Ongoing War © Myriam Boulos

From the series Post Explosion © Myriam Boulos

Foam Talent now: Myriam Boulous

Pretend There Is Water

The New Waterworks

Pretend There Is Water (2026)

De jongens op de palen

In Conversation: Bebe Blanco Agterberg and Mirjam Kooiman 

Telex Iran

Telex Iran by Gilles Peress

Family 2023

Test of Time: Family by Sabrina Tirvengadum

Before Freedom

The birth of a new photographic canon in the WANA region

Self-Portrait / Nursing 2004

Self-Portrait / Cutting 1993

Bo, 1994

Catherine, Melanie & Sadie Rain, New York, New York 1998

Oliver in a Tutu 2004

Joanne, Betsy, & Olivia, Bayside, New York 1998

Self Portrait 1970 2008

Mary Ellen, Ann, Gunner, Zoe, & Nora, New York, New York 1998

Miggi & Ilene, Los Angeles, California 1995

Jesse, 1995

Guillermo & Joaquin, 2013

Mother’s Day 2026

Foam presents the exhibition of Myriam Boulos (1992, Lebanon), the 19th winner of the Foam Paul Huf Award. Across her work, Boulos consistently transforms a deeply personal exploration into politically resonant visual narratives, while also reshaping our understanding of photojournalism itself. Her photography gives visibilty to those living outside dominant norms, capturing moments of connection and tenderness within a society that often seeks to silence them. 

Whats Ours, 2019

What's Ours, 2019

From the series Sea Beach

From the series After Rana Plaza

From the series The People Who Feed The United States

Ismail Ferdous: the Shared Pulse of Image and Sound 

The Fairmont Victim, 2021, from the series 'This Image Did Not Leave Me For Days' by Malak El Sawi, commissioned by Al Hayya Magazine #1. Styling by Ahmed Srour.

On Our Radar: Malak El Sawi

Opening Blommers & Schumm

Our mission

Communion

Description

Pink Ladies and Pear, 2012

as a Foam Member

Discover even more

authenticity (2 CHAINZ) from the series BLACK SNAFU, 2022

Louis Vuitton Jeff Koons Rubens Bag, 2020

"Mohlokomedi wa Tora", Scene 2, 2018 

From the series Home Leaving One for Another

Killa from the series Madre

Dialect, 2020

In a sandstone mine 1 from the series This isn't Divide and Conquer

Wait from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here, 2022

Foam Magazine

Opening of Tyler Mitchell, photo by Almicheal Fraay

About

Verena Blok - Love Shit 

Hajar Benjida - Atlanta Made Us Famous

Jasmijn Vermeeren - You Don't Look Sick

Martin Parr - Very Modern and Rather Ugly

Foam Talent 2026

For information and visual material please check www.foam.org/press or contact the press office of Foam on +31 (0)20 5516500 / pressoffice@foam.org

Note to editors

Hiền Hoàng - Garden of Entanglement

 weaves together several historical routes: that of his mother, growing up in Botswana after escaping the Apartheid regime of South Africa with her parents. That of his great-uncle, Zephania Mothopeng, the anti-Apartheid activist, imprisoned on Robben Island. And that of his grandfather, and his love for music, inspiring Makepe to pursue a creative career.

What at first glance may appear as a personal family narrative, in fact reveals the painful, racist and discriminatory political history of South Africa and the remnants of its colonial regimes. The series unfolds as a multi-dimensional, visual journey along these historical paths, touching on land dispossession, activism and colonialism.

includes striking portraits of his close relatives, sometimes re-enacting historical scenes, documentary photographs of important landmarks, as well as documents from Makepe’s family archive. Accompanying the visual material is a playlist of music, curated by the artist himself—connecting the work beautifully through the shared love for music. 

Sentlhane, 2022, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Monna Wa Mmino III, 2020, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Re A Hlopela Tombstone Unveiling from the series We Didn’t Choose to be Born Here, 2019

Archival footage from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Hippolytus Mothopeng [left] (1958), from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Hippolytus Mothopeng Citizenship, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

The Metronome Swing Orchestra in Botswana (1966), from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Garden, 2022, from the series We Didn't Choose to Be Born Here

The Aunt I Almost Had, 2021, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Wait, 2021, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Kgomo Tsaka Deile Kae, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Kereke, 2019, from the series We Didn't Choose to Be Born Here

Sello, 2021, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Martha and Hippolytus Mothopeng (1982), from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Robben Island University, 2020, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Mama Mo Metsi, 2019, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Under Surveillance, 2021, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Thero Makepe

documentary

On Social Documentary Photography

Nan Goldin documentary première

Ali Zaraay
An Archive on the Move

Byron Mohammad Hamzah
Yang Ting gal Hanya Kita
(All That Is Left Is Us)

Hady Barry
i am (not) your mother

Mahmoud Abu Hamda
The Life of the Displaced During the War

Manuel Bayo Gisbert
A Solid Home

Northern Winds: Jonathas de Andrade’s Fascination with Jangadeiros

Paolo Cirio
Artist of the Post-Panopticon Era

Julia Kochetova
War is Personal

Myriam Boulos: Foam Paul Huf Award Winner 2025

On the Dutch choreography of water

Are we seeing the full picture?

Which images will stand the test of time, and why?

The birth of a new photographic canon in the WANA region

Virgin Mary fucked up the image of motherhood

Myriam Boulos

Ismail Ferdous: The Shared Pulse of Image and Sound

The Fairmont Victim by Malak El Sawi

About

Hiền Hoàng - Garden of Entanglement

Thero Makepe

Hajar Benjida - Atlanta Made Us Famous

Julia Kochetova - War is Personal

Martin Parr - Very Modern and Rather Ugly

documentary

On Social Documentary Photography

Nan Goldin documentary première

Ali ZaraayAn Archive on the Move

Byron Mohammad Hamzah Yang Ting gal Hanya Kita (All That Is Left Is Us)

Hady Barryi am (not) your mother

Mahmoud Abu HamdaThe Life of the Displaced During the War

Manuel Bayo GisbertA Solid Home

Northern Winds: Jonathas de Andrade’s Fascination with Jangadeiros

Paolo CirioArtist of the Post-Panopticon Era

Julia Kochetova War is Personal

Myriam Boulos: Foam Paul Huf Award Winner 2025

On the Dutch choreography of water

Are we seeing the full picture?

Which images will stand the test of time, and why?

The birth of a new photographic canon in the WANA region

Virgin Mary fucked up the image of motherhood

Myriam Boulos

Ismail Ferdous: The Shared Pulse of Image and Sound

The Fairmont Victim by Malak El Sawi

About

Hiền Hoàng - Garden of Entanglement

Thero Makepe

Hajar Benjida - Atlanta Made Us Famous

Julia Kochetova - War is Personal

Martin Parr - Very Modern and Rather Ugly

Ali Zaraay
An Archive on the Move

Byron Mohammad Hamzah
Yang Ting gal Hanya Kita
(All That Is Left Is Us)

Hady Barry
i am (not) your mother

Mahmoud Abu Hamda
The Life of the Displaced During the War 

Manuel Bayo Gisbert
A Solid Home

Paolo Cirio
Artist of the Post-Panopticon Era

Julia Kochetova
War is Personal