Klompching Gallery is delighted to announce the first exhibition in the United States of Dutch photographer, David van Dartel. The exhibition is presented in collaboration with Elliott Gallery, Amsterdam.

This Time Tomorrow brings together a selection of ten color photographs from two of the photographer’s acclaimed projects—On Vlieland and What Once Was—that explore an intimate portrayal of friendship and masculinity.

Initially exploring and documenting his close circle of friends on Vlieland, a remote island in the north of The Netherlands, Van Dartel then photographed subjects as he travelled across several European countries; constructing a vivid portrait of young adults; raising questions about male friendship and the classical discourse of masculinity.

I want to show a world in which we acknowledge that everything and everyone is connected to each other. I believe we should emphasize the connection to nature more. One should have the freedom to give their own meaning to those connections, however, stereotypes limit this freedom. With What Once Was I want to show that masculinity eventually is all about humanity, and that humanity is always associated with a vulnerability and dependency to nature.

(David van Dartel)

The photographs portray young men, located in soft, quiet landscapes, isolated from the external noise and distractions of society. Although highly stylized and constructed, the power of the photographs comes from their success in conveying the highly emotive scenes—two friends embracing in waist-deep water in the sun’s warm glow, a shirtless youth staring back in the luminous light of dusk or dawn, while in another a body is enveloped in a rush of water.

The photographer’s first exhibition in the United States comes on the back of critical success in The Netherlands, with his exhibitions having garnered extensive press coverage and strong print sales.

David van Dartel (1995) is a Dutch photographer based in Rotterdam. His work has attracted worldwide attention with artworks placed into numerous private collections the US, Canada, Spain, Israel, Australia, Switzerland. His work has been featured in Die Zeit, De Volkskrant, Het Financieele Dagblad, De NRC, Harper's Bazaar, iD-Magazine, and De Groene Amsterdammer, among others. His first book, This Time Tomorrow, was published by Mendo in 2020. More recently, the artist self-published his second book, What Once Was. The photographer is represented by Elliott Gallery, Amsterdam.