Typical Dutch

Typical Dutch cheerfully rejects the idea that the Netherlands is ordinary. Counterexamples range from polder Buddhism to disguised wheelie bins and the ingenuity of the low-maintenance front garden. This book presents witty reflections and a unique view of the everyday. After leafing through the book, you’ll never again look at your surroundings in the same way. At every street corner you’ll stop and wonder: Why?

Typical Dutch shows what the Netherlands looks like, a country in which the urge to stand out and the urge to belong fight for precedence. In recent years Jan Dirk van der Burg known from newspaper NRC and Volkskrant, who is also ‘Fotograaf des Vaderlands’ (Photographer of the Netherlands), travelled the country to capture it in pictures. Typical Dutch bundles Van der Burg’s remarkable photo series into a bizarre portrait of a country that considers itself very ordinary. If you think you know the Netherlands, buy this book.