Horizons of prosperity is a project exploring the human desire and necessity to interact with its environment. Engineering and adapting land have been a staple of the Netherlands since the Middle Ages, leading to much of its land being heavily transformed by the constant work, effort, and presence of man. The people who inhabited and worked the land over the centuries left behind traces of their culture and character, traces that at first glance strike as imperfections in the spotless Dutch. Their mark is something specific to a culture while indexing the transition of land into landscape and questioning the meaning of “nature” in view of human impact on the environment.
Should we dream again? Plan - B is a story about the current debate on nuclear energy in Slovenia Inherited from a nuclear dream of a republic that no longer exists. Most Nuclear powerplants around the world are relatively old now and will be decommissioned soon, without actions and steps towards building new nuclear energy infrastructure. In search of solutions for climate change we might have to dream again.
Silent Presence
The power and scale of our need for energy hidden in plain sight. Experienced as a lurking force of change, the movement of earth, low frequency hum of mining equipment and the working lights shining in the night sky. Villages, forests, and land standing in the way of its expansion offering little resistance. Opposition comes from ideas, acted out in protests, occupations and policy decisions which gradually guide our search for energy in new directions, in light of a future where our desire to live fully doesn’t constrict our life. However, for now, the lights are on and the coal keeps burning.
A Ligth’s shadow
I hold darkness close to my heart as I grew up in a place with much less light pollution than in the Netherlands and believe it is a place to distance oneself from the 24h economy and the constant quest for productivity which is reflected in the omnipresence of light in modern cities and due to skyglow more secluded areas as well. This project represents my journey of annoyance with this unnecessary light, embarking on a search for a darker place of peace and escape from the bright signature of our society. But the search persists, darkness is nowhere to be found. Left in light’s shadow is the fear of facing ourselves.
The warm hug of a familiar breeze
Ever since moving to the Netherlands to study my understanding and perception of my home country and my friends there has been evolving. The photographs in this series were made during several visits to my home reflecting my love, longing, frustration and absence to the place, a valley, surrounded by mountains and the people connected to it. What once was home is becoming a cold metaphor for the ever disappearing carelessness of youth, its warmth and tranquillity.