Behind Doors & Windows
Behind Doors & Windows
Nissewaard behind glass during the corona time
During the first lockdown in 2020, I had only been an entrepreneur for 3 months.
In order not to stand still, I started photographing people behind glass.
It soon became clear that we were writing a piece of history together.
In addition to the photos, I also started collecting the stories and these have been bundled in the exhibition Behind Doors & Windows, which will travel through the municipality of Nissewaard until the end of 2021. I have created a book with the same name as the exhibition that contains all the window portraits and stories from the corona period.
The Red Thread
The challenges I have encountered on my path have been tough. There were all kinds of rules in force that were constantly changing. Taking into account the rules and of course the safety of the people portrayed and myself, I chose to put the people behind glass (or if this really wasn't possible, in the doorway). One of them allowed me to write down the story from a distance of at least 1.5 m while enjoying a cup of tea, and the other chose to share it online or by telephone. I was able to collect the stories in this way with complete mutual respect.
The common thread in the stories was loneliness and loss. Everyone had someone he/she missed and everyone had moments where loneliness came over them and hope was just as hard to find.
Yet I also noticed that everyone tried to make the best of it alone or with each other.
Creative ideas were devised to maintain contact or to borrow something from a neighbor. Or if someone couldn't or didn't dare leave the door, the groceries were left on the doorstep, rang the bell and waited at a distance until the groceries were taken away.
(K) Window visits for the new parents were born at this time and even when a family had to be quarantined due to health problems, people visited each other and could still have contact through the window to take away some of the lonely moments.
In a nursing home, a special visiting house was even created so that residents could receive visitors in the garden with glass in between. it was possible to talk via a telephone.
A piece of valuable history
The value of this project turned out to be greater than anything I could have ever imagined!
In 2018 I visited the Rotterdam Photo Museum with my husband. Walking in through the first doors, I intuitively and confidently said "One day... my work will hang here..." As confident as I sounded, we looked at each other and burst out laughing. Just for your impressions, I had just been taking photos with an SLR camera for a few months and was still quite afraid of taking pictures of people. I had shot the first few portraits, but if I was completely honest at that time I preferred to go into nature or photograph animals.
Even though we burst out laughing, one thing was certain! I'm going to be a portrait photographer and I'm going to be a good one too...
With this project I came close to my goal. It was certainly not a Rotterdam photo museum, but within a year of having my own company I was allowed to exhibit as a photographer (at top locations within our municipality such as the Boekenberg, the town hall and the De Akkers community center), I wrote a book, the book is included in the volunteer collection of the book mountain library and to top it all off, we received a big surprise at the end of 2021 that Behind Doors & Windows (the book) would be immortalized in the Voorne Putten archive! So it's literally going to write a piece of history.
Interested in the book with all the stories?
Order the Book Behind Doors & Windows via email (click below)
For €32.95 including 9% VAT
(excluding any shipping costs)
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