In the spring of 1979, two American artists named Bettie Ringma and Marc Miller packed up their lives and moved to Amsterdam. Both had made names for themselves on New York’s downtown art scene, and they arrived in the Dutch capital with sharp eyes and a hustle to match. Their tool of choice was the Polaroid SX-70 — a camera that produced a finished print in seconds, right in your hands. Before digital photography changed everything, the SX-70 was the fastest way to capture a moment and hand it straight to the person in it.
Ringma and Miller turned their camera into a side business almost immediately. Every night, they headed out for four or five hours through Amsterdam’s entertainment district, selling Polaroid portraits for six guilders each — roughly three US dollars at the time. The bars and clubs of the Red Light District were their main hunting ground, filled with sailors, regulars, tourists, and everyone in between. Alcohol kept the nights loose and the customers willing.
Miller later described the operation plainly: “Our Polaroid camera was a money machine fueled by alcohol.” On a typical night, they shot more than 50 pictures. The math was simple — the crowds were large, the drinks were flowing, and people who might have said no sober were happy to pose after a few rounds. Within a short time, the pair became a familiar presence across the city’s nightlife circuit, with repeat customers seeking them out whenever their paths crossed.
The bars they frequented were rough and unapologetic. The Red Light District’s sailor bars drew a crowd that had little interest in being polished. Mustaches were thick, attitudes were loud, and the dance floors saw more than a few drunks happily showing off their bodies without a second thought. These were not glamorous venues. They were working-class watering holes where the nights got long and the inhibitions got short.
The Mexico Saloon was one of the spots they worked regularly. Characters like Fifi, a French bar girl who became one of the faces of that scene, sat for their lens. These weren’t staged portraits — they were candid snapshots of real people living out their nights in real time, captured in the sharp, slightly washed-out light that Polaroid film produced.
Ringma and Miller didn’t limit themselves to the Red Light District’s sailor bars. They also worked the transgender club Madame Arthur, located near the Leidseplein — one of Amsterdam’s busiest squares. The club drew a crowd that mixed drag performers, trans regulars, and curious visitors. In 1980s Amsterdam, Madame Arthur was one of the most open transgender venues in Europe, and the photos taken there reflect a social scene that was far ahead of most of the Western world at the time.
Beyond the clubs and sailor bars, Ringma and Miller photographed the neighborhood cafés that formed the backbone of Amsterdam’s social life. Places like Café de Zon, Café Mascotte, Café Popular, and Café de Waag each had their own regulars — faces that showed up night after night, nursing drinks and holding court. Ko at Café de Zon, Nettie from Suriname at Café Mascotte, and Aunt Tina at Café Popular all appear in the collection, their portraits as specific and grounded as the venues they called home.
Amsterdam in the 1980s was a city that tolerated a great deal and celebrated even more. The nightlife that Ringma and Miller documented was diverse in a street-level, unplanned way — Surinamese immigrants, Dutch working-class regulars, transgender performers, French bar workers, and rowdy sailors all sharing the same dimly lit rooms. The Polaroid SX-70 caught all of it with an immediacy that a standard film camera couldn’t match. The prints were in people’s hands within minutes, which was precisely why customers kept coming back.
What started as a side hustle became a detailed visual record of a city in a specific moment. The photos don’t romanticize their subjects. A drunk is a drunk. A rowdy bar is a rowdy bar. But every face in the frame was a paying customer who wanted exactly what Ringma and Miller were selling — proof that they were there, on that night, in that room.
