Dark Dunes
The exhibition and book Donkere Duinen are based on a number of found negatives taken by an unknown amateur photographer during the German occupation period. The photographer was extremely meticulous about the medium of photography. In the margin of the negatives are described not only the shutter speed and aperture, but also the time of day, weather type, and, as a crack in the idyll, the year: almost all between 19439- 1946. The photographer photographed only the photogenic: vistas, picturesque scenes, still lifes, and sometimes the clouds. Images that have existed in painting for centuries. A photographer who looks through the lens, but disregards time and the world around.
The exhibition and book show the images as they were found: as negatives. Everything that was light when shot becomes dark, and vice versa. This also creates a metaphorical relationship with history; the negative acts as a kind of turning point. The negatives offer the possibility of representing the photograph and thus history as a positive

Included in the exhibition are some newspapers whose publication dates correspond with the dates the photographer wrote in the margins of the negatives. The daily news is trickling into the official and propaganda news about World War II. The newspaper headlines refer to what is depicted in the negatives, like the photo of the armed farmers protecting their haystacks with sticks, or refers to the title Dark Dunes, like the article ‘Verordening voor Kustzone’ (regulation for coastal zones), with its black coastline.