Several major photography institutions and public collections in the Netherlands are currently putting together a broad thematic retrospective of Dutch photography. "Dutch Eyes" provides a highly variegated picture of developments, events, phenomena and people in the photography of the Netherlands from about 1840 to the present, related to the sociological, economic, social, technological and cultural context of their time. The book is arranged thematically around 10 broad concepts. These themes are often centred in a given period, but present substantive leads for elaborating connections to the developments in the past and present as well. The book therefore does not follow a strict chronological line, but rather covers topics that are also inter-related. The chapters are in many cases divided into subchapters, resulting in comprehensive, coherent articles. Where necessary, sidebar texts, which can also be read separately, are devoted to particular people, phenomena or institutions throughout the chapters.
The most important aspect of the book is the photographs themselves: the most beautiful, most exciting and most evocative photographs (more than 500 in total) from prominent Dutch collections are printed in excellent quality.