Roosje Verschoor: MOENGO!

The photo book ‘Moengo!’ shows the past and present of the post-colonial and post-industrial town of Moengo (Suriname) through photos taken by eleven young residents of Moengo in collaboration with photographer Roosje Verschoor. Context to the photos is provided in the book by means of archival material and texts.

The book is designed in such a way that the index and source list can be viewed while reading by opening the cover flaps. The numbers in the flaps refer to the numbers in the photos.
After photo 187 a fold-out map has been glued in: an artist impression by the Surinamese artist Kenny van Genderen. A series of archive photos of the mining in Moengo is printed entirely in silver in a section of glossy paper.

On each page is a silver line that divides the page into two columns, as Moengo was originally divided by population group. The color bronze has been used to symbolize bauxite, which was mined in Moengo, and the color silver to symbolize aluminum extracted from the bauxite.
The book has a structure that runs from ‘the town and its inhabitants’ – ‘tradition’ – ‘architecture and design’ – ‘mining’ – ‘economic conditions’ to ‘the visit to the staff village’. The texts in the book were written by Roosje Verschoor and the young photographers from Moengo.