★★★★★ 5.0
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Foam
Right now, photographers are capturing Amsterdam just like the 14 secret resistance photographers who risked their lives here in 1944 when the Nazis banned all cameras! This gorgeous 18th-century canal house at Keizersgracht 609 has quite the story - it belonged to Carel Joseph Fodor way back in the 1800s, and his Museum Fodor lived here for 131 years, that's like your great-great-great-grandparents' whole lives! See those three connected buildings? Architects had to secretly link them together with a modern glass atrium inside, creating this amazing photography treasure box right across from Museum Van Loon in the fancy Grachtengordel neighborhood. From the outside it looks like a regular canal house, but step inside and you'll discover room after room of mind-blowing photos from around the world!
Did You Know?
- Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam is housed in a historic 18th-century canal house on Keizersgracht, which was once part of the private collection and museum of Carel Joseph Fodor (1801–1860), a prominent Amsterdam art collector—making the building itself a piece of local cultural heritage with over 150 years of museum history.
- Foam is internationally recognized not just for its exhibitions, but also for its quarterly magazine, Foam Magazine, and its in-house gallery, Foam Editions, which sells limited-edition prints—showcasing the museum’s commitment to both preserving and advancing photographic culture beyond its walls.
- The museum actively highlights the role of photography in documenting history, such as its recent exhibition 'The Underground Camera,' which honored the secret photographers who risked their lives during World War II to document the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands—a powerful reminder of photography’s impact as a tool of resistance and historical memory.