As with IMG_, Made in China, and Zelfportretten, what Nieuwenhuize explores in the series Collected Memory is the generic quality of our experience of modern life. The even, varying tones of blue and gray that drift listlessly across these images suggest the way in which our collective knowledge via newsprint and electronic media has supplanted the richness of the first-hand encounter. The photographer shows us a parallel world above our own, abstract and detached. He reminds us of the virtual cloud into which human life has begun to shift, a place where national boundaries dissolve along with traditional indicators of identity and character.

Lorne Darnell, September 2013
Excerpt from: The work of Johan Nieuwenhuize