How do people with different ties and interests see the land they belong to? That question lies at the heart of this final project. For territory, I returned to my birthplace — the Veluwe. A landscape of vast nature reserves intertwined with intensive livestock farming.
After “Shelter” and “Ville de Calais,” “Rooted” is the final part of what has unintentionally evolved into a triptych about the lives of refugees.
This work shows the rise and fall of a refugee camp that became known as the Jungle.
By placing the basic need for shelter at the forefront of the migration issue, I hope to make the human dimension tangible.
The debate around our food production is heavily influenced by imagery rooted in nostalgia.
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam commissioned me to document the impact of the coronavirus crisis in the Netherlands for their history department. Knowing that other media would cover all the major events and highlights, I focused on capturing the stories behind the news.
With the closure of the Hemweg 8 coal plant in Amsterdam, an era came to an end. An era of large steam turbines and plumes of smoke above Amsterdam.
Without phosphate from mines, it would be impossible to feed the world at a reasonable price. To illustrate this connection, I brought images from Dutch highly industrial food production to the landscapes where we are connected: the phosphate mines of the OCP in Morocco.
Urban Farming
Urban farming is often mentioned as an innovative idea to optimize our food system. Locally produced food seems to be the holy grail. In India and China, I came across urban farming in its purest form. Vegetables were grown between or alongside railway tracks, and in China, the rooftops of apartment blocks had been transformed into true oases. The question remains: does the farmer come to the city, or has the city swallowed the farmer?