Types of people through 14 years

November 1, 2008 5:36 AM

Tableaux:In 1994 Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek made a series of 12 photographs of have gabbers and put the pictures in a tableau. They've been making tableaus of types of people for 14 years now and it's all on their site. Some random examples: gabber bitches Rotterdam 1996, football supporters Rotterdam 1997, smas Rotterdam 1997, scream Beijing 1999, bundaboys Rio de Janeiro 2000, skins Rotterdam 2002, girls on their first communion Maastricht 2006, retired Dutch men, proper girls Rotterdam 2006, yupsterboys New York 2006, yupstergirls New York 2006, pin-ups London 2008, city girls London 2008, hipsters Rotterdam 2008, flexmanagers Rotterdam/Paris 2008, the girls of the affluent 7th district of Paris 2008, geeks in London 2008

This post was triggered by seeing this tableau in todays NRC paper of so called "sapeurs in Paris; men of Congolesian descent who are part of La Sape, le Société des Ambianceurs et Personnes Élégantes. These are predominantly poor men who dress well to forget their sorrows."
previously

posted by jouke (51 comments total)

I wonder if there's a word for guys in their twenties who dress practically rather than for style?
posted by sonic meat machine at 5:51 AM on November 1, 2008

"have gabbers"?
posted by sidereal at 5:54 AM on November 1, 2008

Have gabbers, will blobber?
posted by 5MeoCMP at 5:57 AM on November 1, 2008

strike the 'have'

smm, you can fit in with the frat boys who dress in some form of business casual.
posted by jouke at 5:58 AM on November 1, 2008

Is London really a magical place where pin-up is a real fashion trend and all geeks are rail thin?
posted by gubo at 6:02 AM on November 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

oh no! not the frat boys D:
posted by sonic meat machine at 6:02 AM on November 1, 2008

previously

By which you mean 'this is a double post'.
posted by jack_mo at 6:03 AM on November 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

A lot of pictures have been added since 2003 and a lot of new metafilter members joined. So I thought people would like to see these fascinating pictures.
It's not against metafilter policy to post a link after such a time I think.
But feel free to flag the post.
posted by jouke at 6:18 AM on November 1, 2008

poor men who dress well to forget their sorrows

...dress like rich men who dress well to forget their sorrows.
posted by twoleftfeet at 6:22 AM on November 1, 2008

This is fantastic, thanks so much for posting it! :)
posted by oxford blue at 6:35 AM on November 1, 2008

He's choice of nomenclature is also fascinating; gabberbitches, yonkerboys. Seems honest, yet contrived also.
posted by oxford blue at 6:39 AM on November 1, 2008

This is now the picture next to my mental definition for the word 'happy': http://www.exactitudes.com/big.php?nr=19#03
posted by oxford blue at 6:45 AM on November 1, 2008

More proof of the truism that everyone is one in a million... there are thousands of people just like you.
posted by bitslayer at 6:48 AM on November 1, 2008

I really liked those. Some of those "types" are the same as I see every day here, while others are very different.
posted by Forktine at 6:55 AM on November 1, 2008

What's the story with these guys? Was there really a "look" so codified that you had to tuck in the right side of you shirt and not the left? Was it a for-real thing, or did the photographers make them do this?
posted by kuujjuarapik at 7:07 AM on November 1, 2008

Actually kuujjuarapik, that was a look; one side tucked in but the other not. But it wasn't specific about the left vs right. That was probably done for the tableau.
posted by jouke at 7:12 AM on November 1, 2008

What's a gabber? I can only think someone who "gabs," ergo, someone who talks incessantly?
posted by Atreides at 7:38 AM on November 1, 2008

Apparently douchebag is contagious.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 7:41 AM on November 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

Chefs de Confort Moderne has a nice ring to it - if only this tribe tribe were bearded, and with slightly less garish t shirts, I would have finally found my people.
posted by Meatbomb at 7:52 AM on November 1, 2008 [2 favorites]

Oh, here they are... knew there must be a place for me.
posted by Meatbomb at 7:57 AM on November 1, 2008

Small, but still NSFW.

I'm almost too good at spotting such things
posted by Mental Wimp at 7:59 AM on November 1, 2008

Small, but still NSFW.

The dread tribe laughs at how the Man opresses you, Mental Wimp.
posted by Meatbomb at 8:04 AM on November 1, 2008 [2 favorites]

Previously

Joke. The Bechers made me see things in new ways when I was a kid and I love seeing how their motifs have been used by others. Versluis and Uyttenbroek's photo sets are fascinating.
posted by ardgedee at 8:12 AM on November 1, 2008

Where do you get those sideways hats?
posted by kuujjuarapik at 8:15 AM on November 1, 2008 [5 favorites]

Those 'geeks' are hipsters.
posted by dunkadunc at 8:32 AM on November 1, 2008

Ha... manipulators. I wonder if the models knew what they were signing up for?
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:34 AM on November 1, 2008

atreides, in the 1990s gabber was a type of hardcore house music and a type of person that they pictured associated with the music.
The word is not derived from English 'to gab' but from Dutch 'gabber' = mate, pal, from the Jiddisch 'chever'= friend.
posted by jouke at 8:37 AM on November 1, 2008

Women listen to gabber? That...surprises me. I thought gabber was the only genre of music that was more of a sausage-fest than grindcore.
posted by greenie2600 at 8:37 AM on November 1, 2008

I thought the same thing, dunkadunc. Reel geeks look geeky by accident. Those guys are trying.
posted by greenie2600 at 8:39 AM on November 1, 2008

Holy crap, geekiness is Serious Business in London.
posted by regicide is good for you at 8:41 AM on November 1, 2008

I wonder if there's a word for guys in their twenties who dress practically rather than for style?


Business casual never seemed too practical to me.
posted by dunkadunc at 8:46 AM on November 1, 2008

Thanks, Jouke. English-centric mindset FAIL.
posted by Atreides at 8:48 AM on November 1, 2008

ardgedee, you're right; the Bechers started with tableaux like this. Some examples of their pictures.

Personally I think that categorising people as if they were butterflies that you're collecting is mesmerising. These pictures have been appearing in Dutch newspapers for about a decade and it often shows a person that you'd see on the street and wouldn't be able to place in the context of their trendy sub culture, social stratum or age group.
So I think these pictures are very powerful when they depict people you see on the street everyday. Which isn't totally true for non-Dutch mefites I expect.
posted by jouke at 8:59 AM on November 1, 2008

What's a sma?
posted by greenie2600 at 8:59 AM on November 1, 2008

...and is "combat girl" just another term for "riot grrl"?
posted by greenie2600 at 9:03 AM on November 1, 2008

I had to look it up; 'sma' is a word for 'girl' in Dutch modern multi-cultural street language. I'm not part of that subculture so I can't tell you precisely. But it's probably a word stemming from Surinam sranantongo as these girls seem to stem from the Rotterdam community of Surinam descent.
These subcultures or obscure for me, a Dutchman, let alone for Americans or Brits.
posted by jouke at 9:09 AM on November 1, 2008

These guys are just cool: hombres de la silla
posted by micayetoca at 9:45 AM on November 1, 2008

So these are police photo arrays then?
posted by cjorgensen at 9:50 AM on November 1, 2008

Thanks, jouke, this is wonderful.
Clicking through the tableaux, I was reminded of Karl Schroeder's Lady of Mazes where, in a far, far future, hundreds of billions of people are interconnected and there are always other people who have led more or less the same life as yours. It's at the same time fascinating and totally creepy.
Very timely with Halloween and All Saints day.
posted by bru at 10:07 AM on November 1, 2008

Ha. Leathermen. If you're going to talk about looks that are about being "different" in a generic way, this is a great example.

(Mind you, not everyone gets into the Leatherman scene because they prize being different.)
posted by LMGM at 10:26 AM on November 1, 2008

dunkadunc, it looks relatively neat, doesn't offend anyone in any situation you don't have to RSVP to, and doesn't require dry-cleaning. Sounds practical to me. Of course, if you're out chopping down trees or something, you want different clothes, but for your random runnings-around-town there's nothing better.
posted by sonic meat machine at 10:29 AM on November 1, 2008

Women listen to gabber? That...surprises me. I thought gabber was the only genre of music that was more of a sausage-fest than grindcore.

Women, much like their male counterparts, listen to whatever they want.
posted by oneirodynia at 12:06 PM on November 1, 2008

I saw this exhibit at the Toledo Museum of Art (don't laugh, they have a fantastic Art Museum in Toledo!)... I spent about an hour in that room, very, very fascinating!
posted by HuronBob at 12:54 PM on November 1, 2008

What's the story with these guys? Was there really a "look" so codified that you had to tuck in the right side of you shirt and not the left? Was it a for-real thing, or did the photographers make them do this?

From the About page: "By registering their subjects in an identical framework, with similar poses and a strictly observed dress code..."

I don't really see what's so impressive about dressing 12 people up the same way about once a year.
posted by ymgve at 3:32 PM on November 1, 2008

What's a sma?

From the Surinam language (a former dutch colony, that's why you'll find lots of the words in the dutch street language originating from it). It means girl or chick.
posted by DreamerFi at 1:01 AM on November 2, 2008

I've been in Paris for a few years now and I still can't figure out WTF tektonik style is. Also, spot on for the girls of the 7th arrondissement.
posted by DefendBrooklyn at 4:06 AM on November 2, 2008

> they have a fantastic Art Museum in Toledo

It's small by current standards but, yes, it's surprisingly good. They don't have much to show by the capital-G Great Artists, but the curators have an eye for finding excellent work by the less famous.
posted by ardgedee at 6:43 AM on November 2, 2008

Wonderful. I remember seeing some of these in a Youth special in de Volkskrant a while ago.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:12 AM on November 2, 2008

Those men, trust me, are not what geeks in London look like.
posted by mippy at 2:26 PM on November 2, 2008

Yeah, gnfti, they've been appearing in the NRC too for at least a decade. And I saw them once in de Kunsthal in Rotterdam too.

Defendbreukelen, when you google for "tektonik dance" you'll find some youtube videos. And I found this definition:
A new style of underground dancing originating in France, combining popping and rave style on filthy and eletro beats, requires high energy and lots of arm movements and shuffling feet.
posted by jouke at 8:55 AM on November 3, 2008

Thanks for this!
posted by not_on_display at 9:27 AM on November 26, 2008