Lon Robbé
Untitled (Chain)

This work by Lon Robbé depicts an empty landscape. The image refers to our romantic longing for pure nature, which we often project on distant lands. But Robbé made this photograph close to home, in the dunes at Kennemerland, close to Amsterdam.

“My photos are not about memories; on the contrary, they depict desire,” Robbé explains. “If you take a photo of a landscape while on vacation, once you get home there is almost nothing left of the unprecedented space, of the sense of freedom that then made the place so valuable. Through photo-technical interventions I try to bring the immediate experience closer, in order to capture that feeling of always being present somewhere.”

In this photo the technical intervention involves the image being constructed of two analogue shots on one negative. The one is focused on the distance; the other zooms in on the immediate surroundings. Although both shots are made from the same high vantage point, you see two perspectives in one single photo. The landscape thus appears more stretched out, an experience of space that does not stand still.