The Nico Van Der Stam Archives: Limited Edition Book

His images of Syd Barrett’s The Pink Floyd from 1967 are of an iconic beauty. However, few people in the Netherlands – and even less abroad – associate these photos with photographer Nico van der Stam (Rotterdam 1925 – Amsterdam 2000), who captures the band in Amsterdam in April 1967, and again two months later in London. Initially focused on documenting everyday city life and the flourishing local jazz scene, Van der Stam soon turns his lens on the emerging pop music, photographing such luminaries as Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, The Mothers Of Invention, The Doors, Cream, Janis Joplin, The Kinks, The Supremes and The Pink Floyd. He is regularly found in studios where artists are recording for radio and television. "I went to the studios, took pictures of rehearsals and recordings and then sold them to the broadcasting companies."

The few pictures of Pink Floyd that are previously published – without exception in a characteristic square format and not seldom in colour – are just an excerpt from Van der Stam’s immense catalogue which holds over a million negatives.

For PINK FLOYD – THE NICO VAN DER STAM ARCHIVES, Charles Beterams has taken a deep dive into Van der Stam’s archive, exploring and unearthing the photographer’s breathtaking oeuvre. An unprecedented amount of newly discovered Pink Floyd transparencies and negatives – starting with those from the aforementioned 1967 sessions of the band in all its psychedelic glory – have been catalogued, scanned and retouched for the very first time.

Nico van der Stam also takes pictures of Pink Floyd during their 1969 and 1970 concerts at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. By the time the band play the Rotterdam Ahoy’ in 1971, he is no longer doing concert photography himself, assigning requisite duties to his then assistant Govert de Roos, who will go on to become a renowned photographer in his own right and kindly provides the foreword to this book. Most of the pictures from these three gigs are available to the public eye for the very first time.

PINK FLOYD – THE NICO VAN DER STAM ARCHIVES is not only a well-deserved tribute to a unique photo press agency but also an impressive andhitherto unseen insight into the legendary British band’s defining years.