Garden Frames is a growing series that currently consists of six works. Each work contains two elements: one or multiple photographic prints and custom-made cherry wood frames, the shape of the latter inspired by the design of formal Renaissance and Baroque gardens.
The series was born from a fascination for elaborate geometrical garden designs and from the desire to explore the possibilities of transforming framed photographs into unique objects.

The shapes of the frames are inspired by the designs of the following: a lawn out front the Chateau de Chenonceau; the charbagh design of the vegetable garden at Kasteel Wijlre; the cascade in the palace gardens at Schloss Schleisheim; the pond in the gardens of pleasure palace Benrath; two symmetrical flower beds in the gardens of Versaille and a pond at Chateau Vilandry in the French Loire. 

In my photographic practice I attempt to build the ideal garden in images; as a subseries Garden Frames are a part of this attempt.

Rhododendron in Chenonceau, 2023
Rosa in Wijlre, 2025
Yew in Schleissheim, 2025
Compost in Benrath, 2025
Buxus in Versailles, 2023
Cypress in Villandry, 2023

~ Inkjet print on Hanemühle FineArt baryta paper mounted on dibond with custom (handmade) cherrywood frame (made by the artist)
~ edition of 3
~ pricelist on request
 

Fruit Frames

Inkjet print on Hanemühle FineArt baryta paper
mounted on dibond with u-profile
cherry wood frame, handmade by the artist

20x25 cm 
edition of 5 / 1AP

Single €375,-
Diptych €700,-
Triptych €975,-
Quadriptych €1200,-

all prices are ex. 9% VAT

Compost bucket, 2025

Inkjet print on Hanemühle FineArt baryta paper
mounted on dibond with u-profile
cherry wood frame, handmade by the artist

40x50 cm 
edition of 5 / 1AP

€850,- ex. 9% VAT

Pumpkin triptych, 2025

Inkjet print on Hanemühle FineArt baryta paper
mounted on dibond with u-profile
cherry wood frame, handmade by the artist

140x56 cm open 
70x56 cm closed
edition of 5 / 1 AP

€3.300,- ex. 9% VAT

A copy of De Tuin, a painting by Jacobus van Looy. Van Looy painted his garden in the late summer of 1893; I planted and photographed my version 130 years later. The way van Looy observed and portrayed his garden feels strangely familiar. I wish I could have met him and attempted to do so by recreating his most iconic garden painting.

Duratrans on a lightbox
 

Pottery 02, presented at Unfair '24

From the Unfair website:
"This year Unfair invited artist Lou-Lou van Staaveren to develop her first work in public space. This installation, Pottery 02, is the result of an extensive research and development period, culminating in a public immersive installation. 

People and nature are often seen as two contradictory forces, which is not unjustified given the climate crisis in which we find ourselves. In itself, the Westerpark is a contradiction. The park was built on heavily contaminated grounds, as a result of the old Westergasfabriek, and balances its function between that of leisure, relaxation and a nature experience in a metropolitan context. This tension is strongly illustrated between the relatively quiet allotments and the more than 9 million visitors that the park attracts annually, almost on non-overlapping parts of the park.

With Pottery 02, together with Lou-Lou van Staaveren, we zoom in on these contradictions, between people and nature, between the urge to tile the garden and to get lost in a forest. The greenhouse, itself an iconic invention for bending nature to our will, forms the backdrop for an installation that allows visitors to reflect on  nature and our relentless urge to control it.

Pottery is an ever-changing garden installation consisting of a large number of terracotta pots and living plants.The installation is inspired by two kinds of potteries. The French roadside poterie which’s elaborate terracotta collections are like otherworldly landscapes with endless stacks and rows of pots. And the English pottery: an assortment of potted plants grouped together to form a display, usually on the terrace of a garden or on a balcony.
Carefully balanced on top of one another, the heavy pots become elegant sculptural pedestals – expanding on the idea of the garden as the ideal balance between the immersion in nature and the cultivation of a landscape. Van Staaveren playfully embodies our desire to shape our immediate surroundings, inviting viewers to reflect on the interplay between nature and art."

A selection of recent exhibitions and shows

Garden Frames at Prospects, Art Rotterdam 2025 (photographs by Tommy Smits)
The Gardener at Galerie de Schans, 2025 (solo)
Tuun at Buitenplaats Kasteel Wijlre, 2024 (solo)
Pleasant Place as part of Changing Perspectives at Kunstgarage Franx in Zoetermeer, 2023 (group)

BA Photography Graduation Project, ongoing. 

The garden is not far from my home. It is green and colorful, enclosed by tall hedges of yew and hornbeam. The garden is enormous, but its clever design with many different garden rooms makes it feel cozy and intimate. There’s a pond with waterlilies, a greenhouse, a flower covered hill, a vegetable plot, a shed with tools and a cat, a little forest, a maze, an orchard and much more. No place is better for playing hide and seek, for casual strolls, for contemplation.

Gardening and photography go very well together. In essence, the two are surprisingly similar. Both the gardener and the photographer slide along the same scale of control, with observation on one end and intervention on the other. Both construct new realities – paradises or utopias if you will – the gardener using landscape and the photographer using images.

Pleasant Place is the English translation of Locus Amoenus: a literary concept describing an idealized natural retreat inspired by the Garden of Eden and Elysium. This remote garden hide-out functions as a landscape of the mind, serves to highlight the difference between urban and rural life and is a place of refuge from the processes of time and mortality. Welcome to my pleasant place.

Graphic design by Guus Kaandorp

Second price at the Kassel Dummy Award '22

24cm x 32,5cm 
71 pages
digital print
hardcover
edition of 50

SOLD OUT

– Project description – 
The garden is not far from my home. It is green and colorful, enclosed by tall hedges of yew and hornbeam. The garden is enormous, but it’s clever design with many different garden rooms makes it feel cozy and intimate. There’s a pond with water lilies, a greenhouse, a flower covered hill, a vegetable plot, a shed with tools and a cat, a little forest, a maze, an orchard and much more. No place is better for playing hide and seek, for casual strolls, for contemplation.

Gardening and photography go very well together. In essence, the two are surprisingly similar. Both the gardener and the photographer slide along the same scale of control, with observation on one end and intervention on the other. Both construct new realities – paradises or utopias if you will – the gardener using landscape and the photographer using images.

Pleasant Place is the English translation of Locus Amoenus: a literary concept describing an idealized natural retreat inspired by the Garden of Eden and Elysium. This remote garden hide-out functions as a landscape of the mind, serves to highlight the difference between urban and rural life and is a place of refuge from the processes of time and mortality. Welcome to my pleasant place.

20 x 25cm
Edition of 50
Digital print on art paper
Custom made passe partout
Mahogany frame

Reach out for more information on pricing and shipping:)

In 2022, together with Guus Kaandorp and Floor Kortman, I co-founded and edit Pleasant Place: a growing collection of publications about the art of gardening. We've made six issues so far, for wich Guus and I have done several photo series. 

Pleasant Place informs and inspires by offering both practical and in-depth information as well as unexpected approaches to everyday garden tasks and garden design. Through collaborations with experts and artists Pleasant Place caters both to those who grow gardens as well as those who imagine gardens. So far publishes are: 

1. Enclosures
2. Nasturtiums (Tropeaolum majus)
3. Compost
4. Artichoke (Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus)
5. Mien Ruys
6. Topiary

The design is by Miquel Hervas Gômez and Cesar Rogers from fanfare, and distribution by Jesse Presse (NL/BE), Public Knowledge Books (UK) and Idea Books (all other). 

Photographs: Front and back cover for the Compost issue and a photoseries on Levens Hall, the oldest topiary garden in the world, for the Topiary issue. 

with Guus Kaandorp

Front and back cover for Pleasant Place 3 Compost. With Guus Kaandorp. 

Guus Kaandorp and I had the pleasure of photographing Levens Hall, the oldest topiary garden in the world, for Pleasant Place sixth issue on topiary. Other than snapping pictures of the incredible living sculptures, we sat down with head gardener Chris Chrowder to interview him on life and work in the gardens at Levens. Read all about it in PP6! 

A series about the waterschappen – local institutions that manage water secrity in The Netherlands – for Driessen group. Published in their publication 'Betekenisvol werk'.

Nederland beschermt de natuur kapot by Thomas Oudman

Guus Kaandorp and I had the absolute honor to photograph the cover for the iconic MacGuffin Magazine issue 13. The Letter. We also photographed a selection of gestures to accompany an article by Eliot Haworth on – you guessed it – modern gestures. 

An editortial series commissioned by MacGuffing Magazine; published in their 12th issue dedicated to The Log. 

A still life to accompany a short story – Die Maaien het Strand – by Rob van Essen. 

 Still life experiments

with Guus Kaandorp

Experimental and playful project documenting the transformation of my parents garden in Aalsmeer. 

@aalsmeerplotproject