In the history of Dutch photography the name of Violette Cornelius is chiefly associated with the 1958 business-sponsored photo book Vuur aan zee, in which she joined with Ed van der Elsken, Paul Huf, Ata Kando and Cas Oorthuys in portraying the Hoogovens steel plant at IJmuiden. Designed by Jurriaan Schrofer, for years her life partner, it is still regarded as one of the most beautiful Dutch photo books of all time.

In the 1950s and '60s the Singapore-born Cornelius (1919-1997) was well-regarded for her photo essays. Her work in the journal Forum also established her name as an architectural photographer. After participating in a research expedition to Central Africa in 1964 she became interested in anthropology, and some years later began a world trip which took her through Asia, South America and Africa, to ultimately end in France. In The Netherlands her work was gradually forgotten - quite unjustly, as can be seen from the transparencies and photographs which have come out of her recently opened archives.

Noorderlicht is hosting a world premiere with unknown and never before published slides and photographs, made in the early 1970s in the now drained marsh region of southern Iraq.