Duin⎪Dune

The dunes of Schoorl and Bergen - North Holland For the project, a work in progress, I am photographing intensively in the North Holland Dune Reserve and the Schoorl Dunes. This National Park, approximately 40 kilometers northwest of Amsterdam, is one of the largest nature reserves of the Netherlands, 33 square kilometer and with the highest dune of the land (55 m). Climate change, with rising sea levels, extreme rain showers, and long wet periods, has made a fundamentally different nature policy necessary. Through a combination of activities such as removing invasive species, stimulating sand drifts through earthworks and tree felling, open spaces with healthier soil and increasing biodiversity have been created. Moist dune valleys offer opportunities for water retention and form areas where water can be retained for longer. The felling of 13,000 trees - not without controversy (popular walking forests are disappearing) - has made it possible for the wind to do its work undisturbed: by allowing the dunes to shift naturally, the coastline is better protected against climate change. Duin⎪Dune started with the landscape abstractions I created in the shifting dunes; the open and dynamic landscape of ‘the new nature’ helps me deepen my photography. By photographing repeatedly in the same geographically defined area, the photography deepens more and more. Not an extensive documentary report, but rather studies into the appearance of the various landscapes and under very different weather conditions, at all times of the day, in all seasons. Wandering on foot through the dune landscape, I allow myself to be surprised each time by how the landscape presents itself and I let myself be inspired by Garry Winogrand's motto: I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed.