Confluence Part 1

This series is still in research phase for me. For my work it is striking that there is no person in sight. Its lack is characteristic because we often forget that we are part of nature, even though we call it the city where most of us live.

In advance I did not expect how the above and underwater world sometimes merge perfectly. How nature has the upper hand and when nature gets the time everything grows together.

Due to our adaptability, man becomes further removed from the natural origin. It makes us forget that we are still part of nature, and especially dependent on its system. Most astonishingly, we need scientists to determine or (re)define the status of nature and the environment. People expect solutions to environmental problems from the scientific and political angle, without bearing too great a responsibility for themselves.

With the Waterland project I want to build on the starting point of Mist, the changing human behaviour, and man versus nature. Now more focused on the role that water plays in urban areas. How the water gets in our way, but also how we desperately need water. The friction it creates in these areas and the science that constantly tests and implements new methods to find the balance.

a work in progress. First fase made possible by: Museum IJsselstein, Waternet, Melissa Fenijns, Femke Doove and Parool

Nothing to Fear, Just Gravity

Not long ago, I traveled to New York for the first time, shortly after a breakup. I went there to work, to photograph, and to reset myself. I rented an apartment with a 360-degree view, stocked up on food, drinks, and cigarettes, and spent almost a week on the rooftop, photographing the city with a telephoto lens. I had no urge to wander the streets or meet people; I just observed from above.

Loneliness in a desert is one thing, but feeling alone in one of the world’s largest cities is something else. I kept questioning why I felt the need to be there, to create something meaningful. Was it to be noticed? To reclaim something lost? Over time, I understood that New York’s pull affects everyone. The city has a unique way of shaping its inhabitants while being shaped by them.

I see the metropolis as the magnified top of the world, where everyone brings something and leaves something behind. The city’s form is determined by how its inhabitants use it. Nothing to fear just Gravity exposes the connections between the city and its residents, revealing the layers of urban life—from the smog above to the sewers below. Humanity is at a historical crossroads: more people now live in cities than ever before, and by 2030, three-quarters of the world will be urbanized.

Nothing to Fear, Just Gravity is a work in progress, capturing the adaptability of people—a recurring theme in my work. It illustrates how we strive to stand out while also trying to remain unseen. This project dissects the city’s many layers, merging them back together into a photobook that reflects New York’s distinct personality.

"All those old rural towns and villages have now been replaced by several brand-new cities. White. Modern. Huge. Not evolved naturally over time, but suddenly sprung up from the ground. This is the place where people now live. No part of these new surroundings reminds you of the past. There is no place for any historic awareness or aesthetic ideals here. At least, not as far as I could tell. If a blind wall needs a window in it, they simply hack out a hole at the designated place and put in a frame. Not necessarily pretty, or approved by the authorities – let alone a building aesthetics committee. These ‘rogue’ windows are everywhere, but it takes a while until you actually see them. It took me a few days to notice the first one, in a building that had drawn my attention a few times before, though I didn’t exactly know why. Suddenly, I saw it! There, on the middle floor, right in the centre of a huge blind wall, a single hole had been carved out. A Cyclops’ eye. "
Diary notes

The Three Gorges Dam is built in central China. The project, which has been underway for the past 20 years, involves the repatriation of one million local residents. They were forced to take part in a mass migration which will dominate their lives for twenty years. Still, despite their seeming passivity and acceptance, they do not seem defeated. They simply adapt and continue with their lives.

Every week a photo sketch

Over the course of a full year I will send out a Sketch Letter every Friday containing a new photographic sketch. It wil be hot from the press, unpublished and made over the course of that very week.
Whereas I can focus for years on a certain photo project, these sketch series are a valuable counterpart on my work.
Its important to me to stay productive and actively keep on searching, working intuitively and playing with visual storytelling. To be on the lookout for meaningful things. Collecting and connecting myself with the things and people around me.

I decided to challenge myself by making a new sketch every week for over period of a year, and publish it without questioning too much what it is about. Anyway, I want to inspire myself and you by doing this. But i kind of need you as my audience to do this. So feel free to view the weekly sketch, or reply to these letters with questions, comments and suggestions.

Every winter between 11 November and 2 February the sun fails to rise above the flanks of the Alps, leaving the North Italian village of Viganella completely in shadow. Situated in a narrow valley at the end of an 80-kilometer road it is subject to an exodus of its population. Only the center of the village is inhabited, merely by elderly people.

Residents of Viganella and the neighboring villages who face the same problem blame the lack of sunlight in winter. The mayor raised funds for a large computer-operated mirror, to be built 500 meters up the slope high above the village. For seven hours a day it reflects the sunlight to the central square of the village.
It is also found useful to defrost icy roads. And as a gift it illuminated the house of a lady celebrating her 90th birthday.

In the mountain regions old laws have always reigned relations between man and nature. Working the hardest rocks or climbing the highest heights.

I can hear the waves

Svalbard, Spitsbergen’s location at 78 degrees north latitude makes it the world’s northernmost permanently inhabited settlement. The island is literally cut off from the rest of the world by sea or ice. The rhythm of nature is so dominant that the only recourse is to adapt. Svalbard’s inhabitants did not arrive by accident. Many made a conscious decision to leave civilisation behind. What could be a better place than an island within the polar circle? Mining has always been the main source of income for Svalbard ́s inhabitants. Nowadays, scientific research is also a source of income. Various installations throughout the island refer to the research that is conducted there.

It is the contrast between the past and future of the island that appeals to me, but particularly man’s persistent urge to broaden his horizons and literally seek out its boundaries.

The scientists can be seen as modern-day explorers. How people settled on this desolate site, how they adapt to their surroundings.

Chapter one, A hundred glances at the sea. 
Every day I walk into the sea, so far until I am the last one. 
Colors of water and sky seem different each time I take a look. 
With a million moving circles underneath, I'm overwhelmed by infinite changes. Standing inside a giant mirror.

Chapter two, Passengers on the ferry
Each time the ferry hits the other side, he sets foot on the land and will turn around immediately to walk back onto the boat again, together with the newly arriving passengers. For hours on an end. I watch him. Seeing something my father would do.

Chapter three, Close ups taken from sea-paintings
She is watching. Time and time again she moves closer and then slowly walks backwards. After she has left, I do the same. The paint changes into waves when I step away. I can feel it move.

A special Thanks to
Winnie Stomps, Barend Stomps, Marianne Beuken, Roderik Rotting, Poike Stomps, Babet Echter, Robert van Dijk, Judith van IJken, Yvonne Feil, Femke Lutgerink, Rob Wetzer, Sabrina Mandanici, Diane van de Marel, Shari de Boer, Fotolab, Guillaume Koning, Rijksmuseum, Scheepvaartmuseum Amsterdam, Foto Formationa, MIAP Foundation and JONGENSVANHETDOK.

In Waterland, a project started by Stomps in February 2021, research is being conducted into how the urban river and coastal environment are changing. A social anthropological and photographic time document unfolds with the status of now and a glimpse into the future. In collaboration with residents, a number of important stakeholders, artists, designers and scientific institutions, a growing document of time is visualized, which also provides room for historical reflection.