Research by photography with Ellie Uyttenbroek
Slinge Fashion
A Research by photography studio with Ellie Uyttenbroek, exploring the style and gathering places of the urban tribes of Pendrecht and Zuidwijk, using Slinge as our runway. Taking place on Wed 30 Sept, Fri 2 Oct, and Fri 09 Oct. Register here
The regular ticket price for this 2,5-day studio is 125 Euro. To make our courses accessible across different economic realities, we offer a limited number of solidarity tickets at a reduced price of 75 Euro for those who would otherwise not be able to participate. We kindly ask that you choose a solidarity ticket only if you genuinely cannot afford the regular ticket price. If neither of these prices reflects your financial situation, please write to us. We will do our best to find a solution. Thank you for helping us keep our community accessible and equitable.
There’s a brand new dance but I don’t know its name
That people from bad homes do again and again
It’s big and it’s bland full of tension and fear
They do it over there but we don’t do it here
Fashion!
David Bowie knew very well that the way people dress is hyperlocal, develops on the streets and not in rich people’s homes. The real laboratory is not the ateliers of Milano or Paris, but in the ‘bad homes’ on the outskirts of the cities. That is where all the tension and fear of the contemporary city is answered with personal stylings and visual choices. That is where people find groups and identities that make them feel seen and feel safe. Being recognized as a member of a community is what fashion is all about.
This is what the world-famous project ‘Exactitudes’ by photographer Arie Versluis and stylist/profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek has been exploring for three decades now, with their grids of 12 members of a certain urban community, recognizable by their clothes and styling choices covering groups from ‘Gabber’ boys and girls to middle-aged fit girls on the beaches of Copacabana.
Exactitudes was made through a painstaking process of hanging around in certain neighborhoods, observing patterns in which people dress in certain ways and gathering in certain spaces, talking to these people about their lives and their aspirations, earning their trust and bringing them in for pictures, which are then given a caption that does not explain but rather evokes the street poetry of this particular urban tribe.
Slinge, Rotterdam
This is sort of what we will do in a three-day workshop with Ellie Uyttenbroek herself in Rotterdam. As our laboratory/runway we will use Slinge: the extremely long street that connects Pendrecht to Zuidwijk in Rotterdam South, two of the most diverse, also poorest areas of the city. Slinge, through its multicultural working-class culture, historical layers, and sheer length, is the backbone of zones where distinct urban groups can be seen gathering and dispersing. We will learn from Ellie how to observe how they use the street and its facilities, and how to recognize certain visual patterns and stylistic signs. And she will help us with developing a photographic format to capture them.
Prepare for a fun three days with plenty of talks, presentations, excursions, explorations, and lots of strategic hanging around and observing. It will result in a mini-exhibition at the school of the fruits of your labor and an online publication. It’s not about making great pictures. It’s about learning how to look.
Programme Outline
Wed 30 September 2026
15:00 - 17:00 Welcome and introduction lectures
Friday 2 October 2026
10:00 - 17:00 Fieldwork on location at Slinge
Friday 09 October 2026
10:00 - 12:30 Process findings and insights of Fieldwork
12:30 - 13:30 Lunchbreak (lunch not included)
13:30 - 14:00 Finalise presentation
14:00 - 16:00 Presentations of out come and conversation.
More information will follow soon.
About Ellie Uyttenbroek
Ellie Uyttenbroek is an observer, profiler and creative director, best known as co-creator
of Exactitudes, a project that for more than three decades has documented dress codes and social archetypes. She has an instinct for dress and style and explores identity through the cultural dialogue between the individual and the crowd. In her work, the themes of archetypes and authenticity, community and costume, tribes and tradition, folklore and fashion, and the tension between uniformity and individuality play a central role. However, Ellie’s work is as much about archiving as it is about connecting. In the project Etnomanie she explores fashion’s engagement with global dress, while her extensive collection of handcrafted cultural dolls forms the foundation for her upcoming book Souvenir.