Exhibition inadequate views from Paradise by first year Master Photography & Society

In the Netherlands, poverty is often understood through misconceptions; it manifests across different spaces in society, in lives that are shaped by policy language yet remain largely under-represented. Poverty is not only a matter of income, but can also point to conditions of social exclusion, institutional marginalisation, and the absence of agency, situations in which one’s voice remains systematically unheard. It is, in other words, like an empty chair, a seat at the table that exists in policy but remains vacant in practice.

Drawing from Martha Rosler’s body of work, the title holds different meanings at once. Paradise is both the name of the venue and our position as makers in a privileged context. Inadequate views is an honest admission rather than an excuse. No photograph, dataset, or interview can fully account for the complexity of a life shaped by distress.

The exhibition features the work of fifteen students from diverse backgrounds who turn their attention to the urgency of the matter. Their works move across systems and bodies, data and emotion, the language of policy and the reality of lived experience. What is gathered here are attempts at proximity, understanding, and staying close to what cannot be fully held.