To pick up a stone

To pick up a stone is an exploration into the idea of perception and a longing to get in close contact with the earth. Fascinated by mountains and how they keep changing in appearance I collected as many perspectives on it as possible by changing scales, light types and film types. To make the earths connection between the vast and the small visible and tangible, I did a similar research with stones I picked up in deserts and mountain landscapes. With my camera I went looking for ‘the mountain in the stone’. This work explores how photography can add another layer to the changeability of our perception. It’s an invitation to look in a contemplative way at the most powerful and direct expressions of the earth - the place we inhabit - to evoke connectiveness. Because I believe we as human beings need this connectiveness to transform our relationship with the earth. Review by Eugenie Shinkle, C4 Journal: "To Pick Up a Stone is a study of perception itself – of the nature of our engagement with the world, of the way that photography mediates this engagement, and of the way that the camera, the image and the book form can work together to capture the full intensity of perceptual experience." "It’s counterintuitive to think that a photograph might also register other, more subjective sensory information – the so-called ‘secondary qualities’ of taste, sound, smell and touch. But den Boer uses the camera in exactly this way. "