The changing agrarian landscape Mixed Farming Cas Oorthuys Photography

Liesbeth Melis (SKOR) (ed.), Gerry Andela, Yttje Feddes, Frits Gierstberg, Maartje van den Heuvel and Jan Douwe van der Ploeg. Photography: Koos Breukel, Joachim Brohm, W.F. Heemskerck Düker, Noritoshi Hirakawa, Ralph Kämena, Martin Luijendijk, Cas Oorthuys, Johannes Schwartz, Sean Snyder and Andrea Stultiëns



Mixed Farming The changing agrarian landscape

About 10,000 agricultural businesses in the Netherlands are wound up every year. Farms are dismantled or used for other functions. Where there were once grazing cows, there are now golfers playing a round of golf or rows of campervans and tents. Some businesses are transformed into a museum farm. Others decide to specialize instead, becoming organic farms, seeking out sideline activities, or in fact becoming even bigger and more intensively industrialized farming operations. This development has far-reaching consequences for the Dutch landscape.

SKOR invited eight internationally respected photographers to capture this development in images. Historic photos by Cas Oorthuys and W.F. Van Heemskerck Düker served as a reference-point, and the book includes unknown photographs by Heemskerck Düker from the archives of the Nederlands fotomuseum.

Each of the invited photographers chose a particular region or province, depending on their personal interests. Koos Breukel, for example, portrayed farmers in the Provinces of Friesland and North Holland, the photographs by Joachim Brohm give an impression of modern-day farming in Flevoland and Zeeland, and Sean Snyder made video recordings of the landscape in the Province of Utrecht from his car. The other photographers are Noritoshi Hirakawa, Ralph Kämena, Johannes Schwartz, Martin and Andrea Stultiëns. The different angles chosen by the photographers provide a varied impression of the Dutch countryside in the twenty-first century.


These photographic essays are accompanied by four essays. The authors highlight the consequences of the changing agricultural sector for the Dutch landscape, as well as the significance of photography for our perception of the landscape and its influence on the future spatial development of the Netherlands.