Mick Hartley

A kind of people typology by Rotterdam-based photographers Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek, from Bouncers, Praise, Beijing students, Toppers, to the latest, at #112, Sapeurs. Click to enlarge.

Inspired by a shared interest in the striking dress codes of various social groups, they have systematically documented numerous identities over the last 13 years. Rotterdam's heterogeneous, multicultural street scene remains a major source of inspiration for Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek, although since 1998 they have also worked in cities abroad.

They call their series Exactitudes: a contraction of exact and attitude. By registering their subjects in an identical framework, with similar poses and a strictly observed dress code, Versluis and Uyttenbroek provide an almost scientific, anthropological record of people's attempts to distinguish themselves from others by assuming a group identity.

Sapeurs? Members of SAPE, Société des Ambianceurs et Personnes Élégantes, as promoted by singer Papa Wemba and taken up by youths in Zaire (as it then was) back in the early Eighties.

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