In 1957, the parents of photographer Rosa Verhoeve left Indonesia to settle in the Netherlands. Rosa, who was born in in a barren new neighbourhood in Amstelveen, travelled in the opposite direction more than 50 years later to start her photo project Kopi Susu, meaning “coffee with milk” in Indonesian. Kopi Susu refers to Rosa’s Dutch East Indies roots, as it’s a common term to address Indo, people of mixed Dutch-Indonesian descent.
It took Rosa ten years to finalise Kopi Susu, and it was first exhibited at the Bronbeek Museum in the Netherlands in October 2017, together with the publication of the photo book with the same title. Despite being seriously ill at that time, Rosa celebrated the occasion. Rosa passed away on June 27, 2018.