The coming of age of a photography project
Showing you the evolution in my long-term project
For the past 2.5 years I've been working on a photography project with the working title 'Riverlands'. I live in the Betuwe, a region in the middle of the Netherlands between the big rivers. It is a very fertile area and therefore called the fruit garden of the Netherlands. I love the rivers and walking along their banks. So it's no surprise that I'm attracted to water.
The Netherlands has always struggled with water and nearly half of the country is below sea level. Almost a quarter of our land was once just water. As we also have a very dense population, you can imagine that every square metre of our country has been thought about and designed. However, as well as the beauty of the country, I also see many things that I do not like.
I wanted to document our relationship with water. Not really knowing what I wanted to say with this project. I had just started and I thought things would become clear once I had a bunch of photos. Then I would see some red lines in the storytelling.
But it didn't.
In this and some upcoming newsletters I want to show you the progress of this project. The coming of age, as I still do not have a clear vision of what I want to show. I really like this project and I love to go out and take pictures, but at the moment I do not know where it is going.
So here are some photos I took at the beginning of the project.
In one of the upcoming newsletter I will show you some photos I took later in this project. Like to hear your thoughts.
That’s it for this newsletter.
Till next time,
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I see. As I mentioned, seeing more of the images in the project could answer my questions. And in looking on a larger screen I may see the elements of water better. To your larger question, I completely empathize with you on feeling lost (my word) in the project. There is no guarantee that you will find clarity with more photo shooting, but it's likely that you will remain lost if you stop shooting now. A "click" Will happen with more work, is my belief, and you will find a selection and a sequence that works.
i love the photos but i think you are looking at the whole thing from the wrong angle. as humans we always go back to the same question: what is more important - the destination, the journey? to me you are on the journey now and the most important is that you are enjoying it. so keep enjoy the journey and don't worry about destination, time for that will come.