About

Henk Wildschut (Harderwijk, NL, 1967) studied photography at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague.

With a documentary practice that is characterised by long-term engagement with his subject matter, Henk Wildschut aims to shed new light on pressing global issues. By maintaining a contemplative and objectively distant view of the people and situations he finds himself in, his photographs obtain a balanced and monumental quality that incite the viewer to further reflect on the subject. As well as creating an essential counter image to conventional representations of displaced peoples or the Food industry Wildschut’s intriguing approach continues to unearth a range of fascinating stories

In 2005 Wildschut started his long term project around European illegal immigration. This resulted in the book ‘Shelter (2011)’, the book ‘Ville de Calais’ (2017) and his latest book Rooted (2019)

His books have been award with a few prestigious prizes such as the  Dutch Doc Award 2010 for his book Shelter and the Arles, Prix du Livre 2017 for Ville de Calais, and the Dutch national photobook award for best book 2017/18 for Ville de Calais. His latest book Rooted was shortlisted for best book at the Paris Photo Aperture award 2019. The Rijksmuseum assigned him the prestigious  “Document Netherlands” twice. “Document Nederland” is a Rijksmuseum project where photographers capture contemporary aspects of Dutch life to create a time capsule that complements the museum’s historical collection. For this purpose, he created the work Food in 2012, documenting the highly innovative Dutch food industry. In 2021, he produced the work Distance, which captures the impact of the coronavirus crisis in the Netherlands.

He is currently working on a new, highly topical project that aims to depict the gap between farmers and the environment.