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‘It struck me as a minimalist tableau’: Henk Stam’s best phone picture

The Dutch photographer was pleased to capture this suitably orange scene in some toilets in Rotterdam ‘I must admit I was very sceptical of phone photography at first,” Henk Stam says. Sixty years ago, he received his first camera for his 11th birthday. The advent of a newer technology initially stumped him. “My first portable phone, that we used to call ‘a brick’, had a terrible camera that took fuzzy pictures. But like everyone, I noticed the steady improvements,” he says. This photo was taken in Portlantis, a visitors’ centre in the Port of Rotterdam that opened in spring 2025. Stam spent his working life in Canada but was born in the Netherlands and returned there on retirement. With a friend from his photo club, he went to visit Portlantis on a Monday, but found it closed. “As we were leaving, we noticed a large tour bus arriving filled with teenagers,” he says. “We s

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The Dutch photographer was pleased to capture this suitably orange scene in some toilets in Rotterdam ‘I must admit I was very sceptical of phone photography at first,” Henk Stam says. Sixty years ago, he received his first camera for his 11th birthday. The advent of a newer technology initially stumped him. “My first portable phone, that we used to call ‘a brick’, had a terrible camera that took fuzzy pictures. But like everyone, I noticed the steady improvements,” he says. This photo was taken in Portlantis, a visitors’ centre in the Port of Rotterdam that opened in spring 2025. Stam spent his working life in Canada but was born in the Netherlands and returned there on retirement. With a friend from his photo club, he went to visit Portlantis on a Monday, but found it closed. “As we were leaving, we noticed a large tour bus arriving filled with teenagers,” he says. “We s

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According to The Guardian’s source item, ‘It struck me as a minimalist tableau’: Henk Stam’s best phone picture, The Dutch photographer was pleased to capture this suitably orange scene in some toilets in Rotterdam ‘I must admit I was very sceptical of phone photography at first,” Henk Stam says. Sixty years ago, he received his first camera for his 11th birthday. The advent of a newer technology initially stumped him. “My first portable phone, that we used to call ‘a brick’, had a terrible camera that took fuzzy pictures. But like everyone, I noticed the steady improvements,” he says. This photo was taken in Portlantis, a visitors’ centre in the Port of Rotterdam that opened in spring 2025. Stam spent his working life in Canada but was born in the Netherlands and returned there on retirement. With a friend from his photo club, he went to visit Portlantis on a Monday, but found it closed. “As we were leaving, we noticed a large tour bus arriving filled with teenagers,” he says. “We s

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The development sits in VINI’s Culture file for readers following arts, entertainment, fashion, film, music, celebrity, and the business of culture. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-09-05T10:00:34+00:00.

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Primary source: ‘It struck me as a minimalist tableau’: Henk Stam’s best phone picture via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.

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