Sadly many people are under the impression that scrapbooks are only a twelve year old girls way of documenting her summer trip, using stickers and sparkling pens. This is a misunderstanding. Scrapbooks are a clever method of keeping track of memories, photographs and a certain way of thinking. By observing how a scrapbook is set up, what paper is used, what typography, and what kind of organizing system it is easy to see how a scrapbook obviously reflects upon ones personality. Wim Crouwel’s photography scrapbook was the first thing that caught my eye at the Stedelijk Museum, and after going through the entire exhibition my initial thoughts of the connection between a scrapbook and a personality were proven correct.
Crouwel’s clear passion for organization in his work can be seen by the way each page has a theme in the photographs. Whether it is a small photographic series of windows, store shelves, store boxes or still-lives all the photos belong together on the scrapbook page. Each and every photograph is the exact same size glued on the paper, 3 in a horizontal way and 4 in a vertical way. Nothing is written in Crouwel’s scrapbook, with the exception of a number he gave to every photo. The way the scrapbook was set up in the museum definitely played a part in why it appealed to me. Nine pages in a row, covered by glass, truly gave an idea of the repetition, seeing how each page looked the same, until you really started looking at the photographs.