Deep Focus

In spite of the many excellent photography museums in the Netherlands, there are precious few places for young talent to exhibit. Photographer Rob Hornstra says it’s high time someone started an intermediate-level gallery. His own recent book Roots of the Rúntur, depicting fishing communities in Iceland, certainly deserves to be exhibited.

"You’re only recognised as a photographer in the Netherlands once you’ve made it big," says Hornstra, 30. "Then they hang your work in the photography museum in The Hague, or FOAM in Amsterdam. But there’s hardly any place for young photographers to show their work." One such exhibition space is the Fotohof in Salzburg, Austria, where visitors were able to admire Hornstra’s own work last year. "It’s a gallery that also has lectures," he says. "Everything’s done on a very low budget. But they have great exhibitions, from local initiatives to work by top international photographers." Hornstra hopes to set up something similar in the Netherlands.

The beautiful colour portraits in Roots of the Rúntur, taken in Iceland, do not depict the country’s natural beauty, as is usual, but rather fishermen and -women and their villages. He went to Iceland to make a photo documentary under the auspices of a European exchange programme. He decided to make the conditions in fishing villages his focus. "People have a somewhat romantic image of Iceland," he says, "the natural landscape and the traditional atmosphere. But the island is very modern in every respect, including negative ones. They have problems with safety and immigration too. The immigration figures there are even higher than in the Netherlands at the moment. The Icelanders themselves, however, deny that there are any problems. I find that attitude very interesting, and I’ve tried to portray it."

Slow shots

He still takes pictures the old-fashioned way, using film. "Not that there’s anything wrong with digital photography," he says, "but I can still see the difference myself. Real photographs are just softer. A lot of people claim that the difference isn’t visible to the naked eye any more. But I always see it. Also, it takes me quite a bit of time to set up my Mamiya medium-format camera and Horseman large-format camera. And that allows me to shoot more spontaneous pictures. Yes, it sounds contradictory. But snapshots aren’t always so spontaneous by any means. When people have to pose for a long time, they eventually relax. Then you can really take nice pictures of them."

The social-documentary portrait photography of Britain’s Martin Parr and the Netherlands’ Rineke Dijkstra have always inspired Hornstra. But he emphasises repetition less in his own work. "As far as I’m concerned, anything goes, as long as it serves the story you want to tell," he says. The documentary photographer Alec Soth, who combines portraiture, landscapes and interiors, is currently one of his favourites. "I think that in an age when changes are happening in such rapid succession, it’s very fruitful to work in an interdisciplinary way."

Record books

In his books, Hornstra seeks to record sociocultural changes. "I feel involved with the world around me, and I’m fascinated by human behaviour," he says. "Why are older people afraid of younger people? My work is often based on questions like that. Documentary photography, particularly in a real photography book, can be a great reflection of the social face of a certain time. These books are fantastic historic documents. But because they are terribly labour-intensive, and you almost never recover your expenses, not enough of them get made."

So far, Hornstra hasn’t made a cent from his own books. He printed just 250 copies of Communism & Cowgirls, a book of pictures of young Russians he made as a graduation project. The book sold out, just covering the printing costs. "I wanted to break exactly even," he says. "It was a bit of an idealistic move. During the whole process of photography and production, all sorts of people helped me for free. So I didn’t want to make money from it." Likewise, Roots of the Rúntur will be published in an edition of just 500. "If I sell the books to people who are really interested and recoup the costs, I’ll be satisfied," Hornstra says. But in the future, he plans to do his best to generate more interest in photography books. The gallery he has in mind should be a significant step toward that goal.