Cabinetmaker, butcher, lottery collector and merchant: occupations practiced by Israël David Kiek (1811-1899) before he opened a cigar shop in Leiden in 1855. Five years later, Kiek also began taking portrait photographs; the Dutch words 'kiekje' and 'kieken' most likely originated here.
Kiek's clientele consisted mainly of students who wanted to have a photograph taken after a night out. The usually blurry, informal photographs that he took of partying students—often early in the morning—soon became a familiar concept, and the photographer's name became inextricably linked with the 'kiekje', which the Van Dale dictionary defines as an amateur photograph or snapshot.
The story goes that Kiek was not always pleased with the tipsy crowd knocking on the door of his photography studio in the early morning. When that happened, he was known to operate the small drawbridge connecting his workplace to the public road.
In 1990, the municipality of Leiden commissioned artists Norman Beierle and Hester Keijser to create a monument to Kiek. They designed an archetypal snapshot camera on a tripod, referring both to his profession and to the thing to which Kiek gave his name. The monument overlooks Rijnsburgsesingel, where Kiek's studio once stood. For the past few years, Kiek's legend has also lived on in Amsterdam. Kiekstraat has existed on the new IJburg residential and business island since 2004.
