The photographs, photo books and films of Arno Nollen (b. Ede, 1964) are a colourful collection of girls and young women. He shows them in every way possible and from every perspective: clothed, half-nude and entirely nude, Standing, sitting kneeling or reclining, blonds, brunettes, redheads. Especially for this show fifty of his photographs were printed on almost transparent paper. These very large prints were hung free in the exhibition space, affording the visitor the opportunity to walk between the photographs of the girls.

Nollen is fascinated by girls: girls in fur coats, girls in sexy lingerie, girls in airy summer dresses. Self-assured girls, cheeky girls, naughty girls, provocative girls, seductive girls, uninhibited girls, nice girls, shy girls, innocent girls, naive girls, playful girls, awkward girls. Girls who smile, girls with a surly look, girls who look down shyly. Fat girls, thin girls, girls with freckles, girls with a classic, harmonious face. girls from the country, girls from the big city. Girls from Amsterdam, Barcelona or Yugoslavia. Sometimes full length, sometimes just the face, sometimes only their legs. For Arno Nollen everything revolves around girls. As he himself says, ‘I am always involved with girls. Precisely these young girls are interesting because of their body language and their facial expressions. They know everything, but lack experience. That is interesting to record.’

Arno Nollen does not work according to any definite concept or a specific method. He resists every ideology, any dogma. His work is not oriented to an absolute ideal of beauty or aesthetic canons. His only norm is the precision with which he able to visualise his feelings. That’s what Nollen calls himself too, ‘a collector of emotions’. His photographs have a wide emotional range and are filled with nostalgia, poignancy, romanticism, tenderness, melancholy, vulnerability, eroticism, intimacy, desire, lust, tension, devotion.