DutchCandy
Greenlighter
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2025
- Messages
- 2
It started as a small art project, and now it's grown out of control.
Hey everyone. I'm Adam, the artist behind Dutch Candy, a photography and research project about the art, design and stolen logos on ecstasy pills. I am based in Amsterdam, so our collection is all pills produced in Holland in the last 20 years -- including quite a few (in)famous pills.
I've been fascinated with the diversity of designs since moving to Holland, and after interviewing people at the testing services and some anonymous interviews with pill producers, I just kept becoming more interested. Since I started the project three years ago, we've found many pill collectors in the Netherlands and we shoot their collections with the highest-resolution camera gear we can. We regularly print the images 1x1m (3x3').
We just threw another gallery exhibition here in Amsterdam during Amsterdam Dance Event, and a few of the visitors recommended that I post on Bluelight, since this may be the corner of the internet most interested in the project. =)
The project is continuing, and right now, I'm in the middle of a bunch more interviews for the upcoming book. That book will feature all 700 images (fronts and backs of every pill), along with interviews from every side of this world I can reach -- illegal producers, pill collectors, former cops, ex-cons who imported by the 100k pills, pioneers in pill testings, and more.
I checked the guidelines, and I believe this post isn't too self-promotional. In fact, I don't hope to sell any of you anything. I just hope that more people who are curious about this passion project get to see it.
I'd love to answer your questions, so please ask. And one fun fact is that today I've been analyzing all the data from a Chinese machining company that makes custom stamps for pill producers -- which is 836 custom stamps that clearly (based on their producer marks) get shipped all over the world. Wild. I'm about to start the work of cross-referencing the stamps to pillreports data to uncover any hidden trends in the designs/locations/other manufacturing markers.
Have a lovely day, everyone.
Adam
Hey everyone. I'm Adam, the artist behind Dutch Candy, a photography and research project about the art, design and stolen logos on ecstasy pills. I am based in Amsterdam, so our collection is all pills produced in Holland in the last 20 years -- including quite a few (in)famous pills.
I've been fascinated with the diversity of designs since moving to Holland, and after interviewing people at the testing services and some anonymous interviews with pill producers, I just kept becoming more interested. Since I started the project three years ago, we've found many pill collectors in the Netherlands and we shoot their collections with the highest-resolution camera gear we can. We regularly print the images 1x1m (3x3').
We just threw another gallery exhibition here in Amsterdam during Amsterdam Dance Event, and a few of the visitors recommended that I post on Bluelight, since this may be the corner of the internet most interested in the project. =)
The project is continuing, and right now, I'm in the middle of a bunch more interviews for the upcoming book. That book will feature all 700 images (fronts and backs of every pill), along with interviews from every side of this world I can reach -- illegal producers, pill collectors, former cops, ex-cons who imported by the 100k pills, pioneers in pill testings, and more.
I checked the guidelines, and I believe this post isn't too self-promotional. In fact, I don't hope to sell any of you anything. I just hope that more people who are curious about this passion project get to see it.
I'd love to answer your questions, so please ask. And one fun fact is that today I've been analyzing all the data from a Chinese machining company that makes custom stamps for pill producers -- which is 836 custom stamps that clearly (based on their producer marks) get shipped all over the world. Wild. I'm about to start the work of cross-referencing the stamps to pillreports data to uncover any hidden trends in the designs/locations/other manufacturing markers.
Have a lovely day, everyone.
Adam
