Henk Jonker

Hendrik Peter "Henk" Jonker (Berkhout, 23 November 1912 – Amsterdam, 24 September 2002) was a Dutch photographer. During World War II, he documented the impact of the German occupation of the Netherlands and after the war he started a press agency. Praised for portraying "ordinary people and small moments", his work appeared internationally in publications such as Time and Der Spiegel and was included in the 1955 exhibition The Family of Man; particularly notable are his photographs taken during the North Sea Flood of 1953.

Biography Born in Berkhout, a small town in West Friesland, Jonker moved to Amsterdam at the age of 13. During World War II, he had a job at the Amsterdam office for resident registration and got involved with the Dutch resistance. Photographer Marie Östreicher (better known as Maria Austria; the Maria Austria Institute in Amsterdam is named for her) taught him the techniques of photography, and he was able to forge personal identification documents for the resistance, until he had to go into hiding in 1944. Tall and blond, on occasion he dyed his hair black and, disguised as a female nurse, took photographs of Amsterdam documenting the German occupation. These photographs were used as documentary evidence of the occupation, and to strengthen morale and raise funds for resistance activities. During this period he used the aliases Gerrit Boersma, Frans Kreder, and Hélène Annie Smitshuisen. Jonker arrived in Zeeland with the very first aid workers, and photographed people standing on the roofs of their homes. His work appeared in Der Spiegel and Time, and nationally in Margriet and Algemeen Handelsblad.

Legacy Jonkers was known for portraying ordinary people and street scenes, and his photographs of the reconstruction and the 1953 floods are cited as a lasting legacy. The 1998 exhibition Holland zonder haast ("Holland without haste") was dedicated to him.