Waterhuizen. Uit: Hollandse taferelen

Aarsman’s 1988 photograph of the launch of the Majestic - set against the backdrop of the clean lines of a typically Dutch landscape - has become widely known since May 2006. This was the result of Aarsman’s sometimes ambiguous attitude to authorship and image and his radical position on the vintage print. In 2006, following the acquisition of the series Hollandse taferelen by the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam, the photographer decided to make the 99 photographs available online for free, as a special project. Moreover, anyone who sent two printed copies of Waterhuizen, maximum size A3, to the Fotomuseum would in return receive one copy back signed by Aarsman himself. The photographer and museum hoped that this would result in a unique collection of prints, a mirror of the contemporary quality of the home printer and material for a lively discussion about artistic quality, reproducibility and both the intrinsic and financial value of photography.