Most photo books about Valkenburg are of a nostalgic nature or are used for city promotion. They are full of slick pictures of cultural-historical monuments, folklore and hilly landscapes. In short, they show an idealized Valkenburg.
Gezichten van Valkenburg (Faces of Valkenburg) has a different perspective. More than a hundred expressive photos provide a surprising and unadorned picture of mass tourism and the quiet, hidden side of Valkenburg between 1949 and 1989. The result is a book about a turbulent tourist town that keeps reinventing itself.
With photos by Cas Oorthuys, Peter Martens, Frits Widdershoven, Henk Blansjaar, Ad Windig and many others.
