In the exhibition Klas op kleur (Class by Colour), designer Sanne van de Goor, in collaboration with the Amsterdam City Archives, shows how class photos reflect trends in colour, identity and heritage.
Van de Goor collected hundreds of class photos from Amsterdam and researched the colours of clothing in these class photos from 1970 onwards. She incorporated her findings into an interactive database: klasopkleur.nl. Visitors can filter by district, year, type of education and type of school, revealing new colour patterns; a visual journey through fifty years of school culture.
An installation of this project is on display at the Amsterdam City Archives at Vijzelstraat 32 until 4 January 2026. Merel Bem wrote a story about this project. Dafne Gotink wrote a poem.
About the creator
Sanne van de Goor studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and has since worked as a designer on both self-initiated and commissioned projects. Her practice focuses on everyday patterns manipulated by habits, (unforeseen) behaviour and time. She combines graphic, interactive and socio-artistic elements to reveal stories of people and places.
The concept for Klas op kleur (Class by Colour) arose from earlier research Van de Goor conducted into the relationship between colour and comfort. In this research, she investigated the extent to which colours or patterns can evoke memories or nostalgia and thus offer comfort. The phenomenon of class photos brings together nostalgia and colour. One colour does not mean much, but it is the combination of all those colours that takes you back to a specific time, like a colour palette that surrounded you during a formative period of your life.
Exhibition ‘Klas op kleur‘
Amsterdam City Archives, Vijzelstraat 32
Until 4 January, 2026
amsterdam.nl/stadsarchief
