These three works are part of an ongoing research into gardens. The shapes of the frames are inspired by the designs of three formal French gardens: the gardens at Versailles, Chenonceau and Villandry. In the ongoing research the garden is presented as a landscape of the mind, and as a place of refuge from daily life and the processes of time and mortality.

~ Inkjet print on Hanemühle FineArt baryta paper mounted on dibond with handmade cherrywood frame 
~ edition of 3
~ pricelist on request
 

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
Single edition of 118 x 78 cm
Price on request

BA Photography Graduation Project. 

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.

Changing Perspectives was groupshow in Kunstgarage Franx in Zoetermeer, curated by Tineke van Veen. 

All prints and light boxes are for sale. Don't hesitate to reach out with any questions you might have:)! 

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

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

Pleasant Place is a growing collection of publications about the art of gardening. 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.

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

Issues so far:
1. Enclosures
2. Nasturtiums (Tropeaolum majus)
3. Compost
4. Artichoke (Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus)

Pleasant Place is kindly supported by Mondriaan Fonds. 

The Pleasant Place publication series is a spin off of my graduation project, developed and created in collaboration with Floor Kortman and Guus Kaandorp. 

with Guus Kaandorp

 Still life experiments

Nederland beschermt de natuur kapot by Thomas Oudman

This series was made during a residency at Plaatsmaken, a graphic design workspace in Klarendal, Arnhem. 

Huis met rode kozijnen, klimop en een rond boompje
Vier geparkeerder auto's
Huis met berkenboom

Silkscreens with cyanotype skies 
50 x 60 cm 
edition of 10 


 

Graphic design by Guus Kaandorp

Shortlisted for 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:)

BA Photography thesis

Graphic design by Eva van Bemmelen
Edition of 35
SOLD OUT

– Abstract –

As the title suggests, this thesis is about gardens. It is about different kinds of gardens: physical gardens, gardens in visual arts and imaginary gardens.

My research started in the summer of 2020 when I read the following quote in The Well Gardened Mind: Rediscovering Nature in the Modern World by psychiatrist Sue Stuart-Smith: “All gardens exist on two levels: on the one hand there’s the real, physical garden and on the other there’s the garden of our imagination.”[1]  I am fascinated by both gardens ­– the physical as well as the imaginary – and explore my relationship to both in this thesis.

I have divided my research and this text into two autonomous parts – simply called Part One and Part Two – because of the different natures of my research. The first part is more dry, factual and informative while the latter is a very personal account.
Part One consists of two chapters. The first chapter is rather general: it looks at the etymology as well as at the definition of the concept ‘garden’ and takes us through the history of Western European garden culture. Starting with the origin of gardens some 12.000 years ago we swiftly travel through gardens in the Antiquities, Medieval sober gardens, harmonious Renaissance gardens, rigid and formal Baroque gardens, painterly romantic gardens in the Romantic era, Modernist cozy gardens and end in our contemporary democratic backyards. The second chapter zooms in on gardens and visual arts. It starts with a visual break – which is to be enjoyed in the visual appendix – and moves on to analyzing the practices of the following four gardener-artists: Claude Monet, Edward Steichen, Derek Jarman and Elspeth Diederix. A brief chapter dedicated to the relationship between the photographic medium and the garden concludes Part One.
Part Two is about my personal relationship with gardens and gardening. The first subchapter explains that, to me, gardening is both spiritual and political. It is spiritual because it helps me to connect to both the physical and non-physical, it is meditative and magical. At the same time gardening is political. Producing your own fruit and veg is an anti-capitalist act, a hopeful investment in the future, and challenges our capitalist notion of time. The second subchapter introduces the concept of ‘imaginary garden’ and describes its place in my photography practice. It concludes with a comparison between the gardener and the photographer, whose work – in essence – is surprisingly similar.

with Guus Kaandorp

Portraits of twenty of the most common bees in the Amsterdam region. Still lifes of the attributes of natural bee-keepers. 

Collaboration with The Natural History Museum Rotterdam and Wellbeeing. 

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

@aalsmeerplotproject