Eddo Hartmann
Eddo Hartmann, born in The Hague in 1973, studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague. He is a Dutch photographer with a career that has spanned over 25 years. Hartmann is renowned for capturing striking and thought-provoking images of architecture and urban spaces. Initially, he started his career as a commercial and editorial photographer but later shifted towards long-term documentary projects. One of his most notable works is “Setting The Stage | North Korea,” which is a series that documents the intricately designed communist capital of Pyongyang.
In addition to his photographic work, Hartmann is also a respected lecturer in technical skills and visual grammar. He is committed to capturing the impact of human activity on the planet and its landscapes. Hartmann’s work has been widely exhibited and published in newspapers and magazines around the world. It can be found in private and public collections. He has received numerous awards, including the Sony World Award 2024 for his groundbreaking work, “The Sacrifice Zone, about the former nuclear testing ground of The Soviet Union. He is currently based in Amsterdam, where he continues to work as a freelance photographer.
“Setting the Stage North Korea” one of the best known projects of Hartmann shows the North Korean regime’s ambitions to build the ultimate socialist city and to mould the people living in that city to their ideals. He is one of very few Western photographers who has been allowed almost full access to the country. He had the exceptional opportunity to photograph this architecture of artificiality. In a series of evocative images, he captures the forced and almost surreal character of North Korean ambition. In a very personal and original style.
In 2024 Eddo Hartmann was awarded with the prestigious Sony World Photography Award for his project “The sacrifice Zone” This project shows a remote area of Kazakhstan which was once home to the Soviet Union’s main nuclear testing facilities. It became known as ‘The Polygon’. On this site more than 450 nuclear tests took place from 1949 to 1989, without regard for their effect on the local population and the environment. The full impact of the radiation only became apparent after the test site closed in the early 1990s.
