Out of the Bog
'Out of the Bog' is Baukje Venema's photographic collaboration with Noorderlicht and the daily newspaper Dagblad van het Noorden. It follows a slow journalism project about poverty in the 'Veenkolonial' areas, where historically peet was dug from the ground, about the causes of poverty as often transferred from generation to generation. The project features portraits of current residents, collages that are based on images from historical archives and texts from the journalistic project.
When you are seemingly stuck on paths that have been trodden for generations, how do you set out on a new path?
The former peat colonies of Groningen and Drenthe were originally boglands where pioneers cut peat, waterways brought wealth, and agriculture and industry reinforced each other. Until the modern age turned its back. Nowadays, the area is associated with deprivation. At the same time, residents are proud of their region, and fed up with its image.
How does change come about when your region’s history and image are tied to sod huts and peat labourers, when its story and ensuing consequences are woven into the fabric of your family?
That is the key question for photographer Baukje Venema within this exhibition. It also provided the starting point for the same-named journalistic project by Maaike Borst (Dagblad van het Noorden), which tells the stories of the five families shown here from the peat colonies. Venema drew inspiration from this and created a series of photographs and videos corresponding to the timelines of the written project.
Old archive images, stories and paintings from the region form the basis of this visual investigation into change and transformation over time. Venema opted for experimental series in which she works with photographs, video and paint. By abstracting, blurring or inverting images, the viewer experiences new perspectives.
She photographed the current residents using a nineteenth-century glass plate camera. They seem to look back on an eventful past. Simultaneously, they form new benchmarks on an infinite timeline: where do you come from, where are you, where are you going?
Out of the bog is a collaboration between the Noorderlicht Photography Foundation and Dagblad van het Noorden.
Photography: Baukje Venema, Design and Project Management: Wim Melis (head curator Noorderlicht), Text: Maaike Borst, Project Coordination Journalistic Project: Esther van de Meer, Podcast: Jeroen Kelderman, Production: Ike de Zeeuw, Hanne van der Velde & the team of Noorderlicht, Text Panel Design: Bloei Media with photography by Siese Veenstra, Initiative: Kees van der Meiden (director Noorderlicht), Erik Wijnholds (former editor-in-chief Dagblad van het Noorden). With thanks to the families Van der Laan, Aardema, Snippe, Loots and Zwinderman.
To read the stories of the five families as well as more background information, please visit www.uithetmoeras.nl. (Dutch only.)
The painting in the exhibition is a reproduction of Veenderij in volle werking, by Jacob Sibrandi Mancadan, c. 1650, oil on canvas, Groninger Museum collection, photo Marten de Leeuw.
The photography project is made possible by: BPD Cultuurfonds, Stichting JB Scholtenfonds, Stichting Stokroos, Beringer Hazewinkel Fonds, Mondriaan Fund. The journalistic project is made possible by: Fonds Bijzondere Journalistieke Projecten and the media fund of the Province of Groningen.
