Polderbloem
If I squeeze my eyes close enough, the waves turn into a pink sea
rolling into the shore, row after row
The tourists become little crawling ants
And their camera flashes are warming sunbeams peeking through the clouds
My hometown Egmond is located in the heart of the tulip fields in the Netherlands. Each season I could see the changing colours of the fields through our window and with it, the business of my neighbour. They ended their family business last year and started to break down the bulb shed I had been looking at throughout my life. As the walls collapsed, the inside slowly started to unravel, which became the starting point for my project.
Polderbloem is a photographic investigation into each stage of the tulip cycle in The Netherlands. Through new imagery and found footage, I shed light onthis transformation that has occurred over time. From its status as a wealth symbol in the 1600s to its current state as a mass product, from a bulb worth the value of an Amsterdam canal house, to something that is now widely available. I realise that it has become an empty industry, where the symbol of the flower no longer plays a role, where the future of the tulip cannot be guaranteed. But what remains when there is no actual presence of the flower?
rolling into the shore, row after row
The tourists become little crawling ants
And their camera flashes are warming sunbeams peeking through the clouds
My hometown Egmond is located in the heart of the tulip fields in the Netherlands. Each season I could see the changing colours of the fields through our window and with it, the business of my neighbour. They ended their family business last year and started to break down the bulb shed I had been looking at throughout my life. As the walls collapsed, the inside slowly started to unravel, which became the starting point for my project.
Polderbloem is a photographic investigation into each stage of the tulip cycle in The Netherlands. Through new imagery and found footage, I shed light onthis transformation that has occurred over time. From its status as a wealth symbol in the 1600s to its current state as a mass product, from a bulb worth the value of an Amsterdam canal house, to something that is now widely available. I realise that it has become an empty industry, where the symbol of the flower no longer plays a role, where the future of the tulip cannot be guaranteed. But what remains when there is no actual presence of the flower?
In the eye of the beholder
This project explores the ways in which we reflect ourselves and our ideas behind the beauty standards upon our dogs and cats. As the way we treat our pets says a lot about us and about the relation people have towards pets.
A place where the execution of living up to this beauty standard starts is the trim salon. Trim salons are designed to wash, blow dry and cut your animal in the way the owner wants their animal to look like. The owners comes in, tells their expectations, sometimes shows a photos of the desired cut, leaves their dog at the salon and in 2-3 hours comes back and picks up ideal their dog or cat.
I visited three trim salons over the last couple of weeks and documented the process of grooming, washing, blow drying, when the owner left the salon step by step. I focussed on the pets, how they felt, the person that did the work, the surrounding and how the place looked like after the dog or cat was done.
Special thanks to trim salon de Jordaan, Reino Canino and trim salon La Chic