Boeren, Avonturen op het land

A book that is published by the occasion of an exhibition in the Fotomuseum Den Haag.
The grooved head of an old farm laborer. The portrait of a proud Friesian horse. A still life in a rustic interior. They are timeless topics, already captured in the past by photographers such as Adriaan Boer, Henri Berssenbrugge and Ed van der Elsken, nowadays among others by Bert Teunissen, Dirk Kome and Hans van der Meer. Famous names who have chosen for a familiar subject: the peasant life in the Netherlands.

From the end of the nineteenth century until today many photographers have captured the Dutch rural life. The most moving, most appealing images are shown in Farmers. Kees’ t Hart searched for texts that matched the subject. More than eighty photographers provided a photograph where many meanings can be attached to: the development of a national cultural identity, the elaboration of the landscape, the changing of a profession. You can see progress and decline, hardness and romance. Rural scenes are often associated with nostalgia: the longing for a home which no longer exists.

However: farm life is still there. The classical photographs of burly men in overalls, cows and sheep in misty meadows and red brick farmhouses are still the images we see in the Dutch landscape of the present-day. Farmers is a book to treasure.