Reports

Report: Decay of life

"Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one’s head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no to-morrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace." Sylvia Plath
Not so many people will consider a visit to the cemetery as a pleasant visit. Understandable, but unfortunate, because the people will miss the beauty and the prevailing peace of the cemetery. The graves, which in their turn endured severe decay, stand as a metaphor for the decay of life and the disappearance of the physical.
There were time seems to stand still, where the reunion with nature takes place. Not just for the organic material but metal and rock are absorbed into nature by the proliferation of plants. Regardless of the nature of the matter and the human, the circle is completed here.
For these report I visited more than a dozen cemetery’s in various countries and cities over a period of three years. The Jewish cemeteries may not be removed due to religious beliefs, therefore the decay in the course of decades is beautiful to see there.

Cemeteries in the report:

StarГЅ ЕѕidovskГЅ HЕ™bitov in Prague, Czech Republic
De Nieuwe Ooster Cemetery in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Cemetery Enschedesestraat in Haaksbergen, the Netherlands
Car Cemetery Eysink in Haaksbergen, the Netherlands
VyЕЎehradskГЅ hЕ™bitov in Prague, Czech Republic
Israelic Cemetery 1913-1914 in Diemen, the Netherlands
Groenesteeg Cemetery in Leiden, the Netherlands
Cemetery in Katwijk aan Zee, the Netherlands
Family cemetery in Haaksbergen, the Netherlands
JГјdischer Friedhof in Frankfurt, Germany
CitroГ«n garage in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Cemetery in BuЕЎovice, Czech Republic

Report: Us, carnivores

This reports visually informs the viewer the process of harvesting meat in the abattoir. The majority of the people are meat eaters, but not aware of the process that goes along with it. I, myself, am a meat eater and wanted to know what happens in the abattoir. Inform yourself by viewing the report, the more lugubrious pictures are not present in this selection.

It was minus 7 degrees outside, but the space I was about to enter should just barely be one degree above zero. Five man were already busy since the early morning with the skinning of the animals. In every corner of that space something interesting was happening. In the left corner the animals were brought in one by one, and were given a big pike through their brains making all paws collapsed to the floor. The animal was lifted by the chain on its paw, now hanging upside down, brain dead, waiting for the butcher to cut the his/her throat. The butcher cut through the neck and head arteries and blood gushed out. I had to take a few steps back, because the cow was still moving, while bleeding heavily, to prevent blood drops from hitting me. The cow dies anesthetized within a couple of minutes of blood loss. The paws and head where removed from the body and to prevent faecal contamination, the digestive system was removed as well. The skin was removed by special pullers, which easily separated the skin from the body. The internal organs were removed and hooked onto a butcher hook. These were kept in the right order until the veterinary (re)checked the health of the animal. The body was cut into halves and both halves were hanged onto meat hooks. The spinal cord was removed by the deboner and the cadaver was rinsed. One ear stays attached to the cadaver, for recognition.

Report: Hells Angels in the neighboorhood

Every day I pass the clubhouse of the Hells Angels with my bike and every time I avert my gaze to the terrain, what was happening there? On a sunny Saturday in September I got a chance to have a look inside the clubhouse, the hells angels were holding an open day. Whilst making pictures of the terrain and clubhouse, an hells angel approached me and asked me if I would take a picture of him and his biker friends. I quickly changed my lens and made a deal that I also could make individually portraits of them. I got the hang of it and went looking for Daniel Uneputty, the president of the Hells Angels Amsterdam. I found him in the back of an almost empty barn and I managed to lure him out for a portrait photo. I saw my white legs reflect in the reflection of his sunglasses and wondered where he would be looking at?

Despite of the somehow uneasy atmosphere my intriguing stayed for the Hells Angels. At the end of 2011 the clubhouse would be demolished, and therefore I wanted to visit the clubhouse one more time intact. The biggest part of the terrain was already cleared, the trailers and campers were removed from the terrain, but the clubhouse would still be there for a short while.