Gerard Foekema was born in 1943 in Santpoort (Velsen, prov. North Holland) and grew up in Haarlem. He studied physics and philosophy at the University of Amsterdam where he graduated in 1969. After a few years of earning his living as a teacher and as an editor, he obtained a position in the administration of the University of Amsterdam. Foekema travelled for the first time to India in 1976 and became fascinated with Indian architecture. From 1979 onwards, he made the Hindu temples of Karnataka (South West India) his main topic of study, both textually and photographically. He focused on the temples of the Early and Later Chalukyas (6th-12th c.) and Hoysala (11th-14th c.) periods. After an early retirement in 1989 from his position at the University of Amsterdam the study of Indian temples became more than less Foekema’s main occupation. He followed courses in art and archaeology of South-Asia at Leiden University and did extensive field work for an extensive monograph on Chalukyan architecture. Simultaneouly Foekema worked on a PhD thesis, titled Architecture decorated with architecture: later Medieval temples of Karnataka, 1000-1300 A.D., which he defended in Leiden in 2003. Foekama’s publications on Hindu temples are illustrated with his own photographs.

Since the 1990s and the emergence of the digital camera, Foekema has broadened his geographical scope by travelling extensively in Central Asia and China, and also in Ethiopia and South Africa.