PHOTOGRAPHY | STATEMENT | BOOK AND PRINTS
SUMMARY
Entitled Land and Traces, this series shows the dunes of Kennemerland with remains of bunkers. These are fragments or parts of bunkers left in the country. They have been partly absorbed by nature and have formed a remarkabe and unconvenient symbiosis.
It explores the story formed by the relationship between place, event and memory.
This work stems from my fascination with the nature of our relationship to our environment and that what we call landscape. The question what a landscape actually is and the emergence of self-evident fact that land can become property.
These are photo’s of the land. But is it landscape? These bunkers became a metaphor for who we are and how we treat land.
BEGINNING
This series emerged from the earler ‘Oorlogsbeton’ photoproject. This extended to the Netherlands and a part of Belgium. What fascinated me was the contrast between the concrete structures who lay like ‘fremdkörper in their natural environment.
By developing my photography within the questions about landscape (photography), the desire arose to tell a story about landscape.
The area of the dunes where I live nearby, is a beautiful nature area. But a lot of bunkers and remains are there to find too. More than just a registration I was looking for a represantation of the meaning of the presence of all those concrete works. With these defenses the beautiful nature area wittnessed horrific events. It was heavily bombed and many people were shot. The bunkers tell a dark history.
What fascinated me about this is the contrast between the visible beauty of this country and hidden history there.
What a landscape is for me emerged within a relatively small and demarcated area: a story consisting of place, event – history and memory.
PHOTOGRAPHY
I wasn’t interested to tell war stories and became more fascinated by how the land came to be, the use of the land and struggle that was caused by the idea of owning land. For my photography it was an extension that arose earlier during travels through Scotland and questions about what a landscape actually is and how I want to represent that.
This went much further than photographically recordings of concrete structures built during the war. I discovered I was increasingly concerned about how the land was formed, the use of the land and the struggle that arises from the desire to own land.
Photographically it became part of the question that arose earlier during my trips through Scotland about what a landscape actually is and how to photograph it.
A landscape does not excist without stories and that makes my region more special. Also because these stories connect directly to recent history and conflicts.
The uncomfortable symbioses that has arisen was most palpable during drizzly, gloomy weather (a bunker in sunshiny summertime looks more as a tourist attraction). There are no hikers then and although these bunkers are close to an inhabited area, off the path and with little light they cause an oppressive impression. As if there truth nature only then appears. The surrounding becomes… ‘unheimisch’ / uncanny. The story of these bunkers goes beyond a war story. Deeper, because they also tell a story about how we treat land and thus tell our own story.
This also turned out to be a striking base to further investigate these phenomena (landscape and land ownership) as part of a photographic triptych I am working on*.
It has been my goal to give meaning in the photography to the tension in the relationship between nature and culture.
* part two will be about the bording area of Italy, Slovenia and Austria.
REMEMBRANCE
For me, the many bunkers with their concrete appearance form a strangely contrasting beauty in a peaceful nature. I think I was more fascinated by the madness to built hundreds of bunkers, than war questions like who was good and who was wrong. Here a strange mix of actual experience, memory and imagination arises. Is there still anything noticeable of the cruelty that took place there?
Resulting in these very questions:
Can the earth remember?
Can these dunes bear witness in some way?
There are physical traces, but are there also spititual traces? They are elusive…
Can photography challenge the spectator to go beyond the physical elements in these images?
Litteral traces will have been washed away, but is there such a thing as mental or spiritual traces? In this environment, physical traces are erased not only by humans, but also by nature**. But where does the uncanny come from that you can still experience here? The importance of metaphors and myths is for that which is intangible.
Most walkers pass carelessly and chatter along these remains that are often visible from the paths. It is therefore safer to stay on the paths.
An attractive thought-experiment: what would the world look like without us?
The remains of human presence, a future archaeology. Man has disappeared for whatever reason and this is the last visible thing before nature takes over completely. A hopeful idea too, perhaps a new life will emerge from it, a new attempt from a different form of intelligence.
** this in contrast to the Italian – Austrian borders where part 2 of this project will take place. The inventions in the rocky land have resulted in deeper physical changes and are still clearly visible.
Land and Traces is an ongoing project.