A land that refuses to please. Where silence reigns.

Inspired by the works of Dutch poet and musician Jan Kleefstra, 'Foorbij Nij Altoenae' captures the harshness of the landscape and combines it with portraits and stills into a series of photographs exploring a fascination with the lives of headstrong people tucked away from the everyday and their connection with this grim, unapproachable land. 

People who go their own way. Who don't allow themselves to be led by the delusion of the day. By what is ‘new’ and what should change. Bound to each other by their own, centuries-old language. However, a fragile language that is unfortunately on the brink of slowly fading.

But, like most stories, ‘Foorbij Nij Altoenae’ is an interpretation of the truth. The work bounces between fact and fiction, between reality and myth.

If you are interested in the full story of Foorbij Nij Altoenae or if you like to take a close look at the images that are in the book, please click here.

The book

Together with designers René Put and Brigitte Gootink of PutGootink, editor Ellen Sanders and the rest of our dedicated team, I worked on my first photo book ‘Foorbij Nij Altoenae’ (Past Nij Altoenae). A quirky, 132-page book, 21,5 x 26,5 cm in size with roughly 85 full color and black and white images, that resembles in a unique way the nature of the land. The book also includes writings in the local Bildt language, English and Dutch. It was published in cooperation with Lecturis Publishers in the Netherlands and Belgium.