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In 2000 I made a series of landscape photographs in the Ooijpolder, in the eastern Dutch province of Gelderland. This led to Het Formaat van Waterland, published in 2004; wide panoramas along the river Waal, combined with poems by Victor Vroomkoning.

In early 2020 I began working on what would become On My Doorstep. By concentrating on a smaller area of the Ooijpolder than I had visited in 2000 and by spending a lot of time exploring and observing the landscape, a strong feeling of intimacy developed. I moved about mainly by bicycle and on foot, so was able to slow down and reflect better on what I was seeing.

Since 1993 I have had the privilege of living in this remarkable part of the Dutch countryside. The word that always comes to mind is rooted; the sounds, scents, temperatures, people, light, animals, trees, wind. It’s the place where I live and work, where I feel at my best – my biotope, where it’s always warm and peaceful. This series of photographs made me more conscious than ever of the significance of the concept of home.

The past two years presented the perfect opportunity to further investigate my immediate surroundings. Time passed in silence, without any feeling of resentment or disappointment about our limited freedom of movement. On the contrary, it felt liberating and beneficial to be able to explore the landscape with a calm sort of concentration, a small camera always at hand, taking photographs inspired by amazement or chance rather than any preconceived plan.

On My Doorstep has been enriched with a text written by Dutch behavioral biologist Tijs Goldschmidt. He has reflected on the landscape in words, as I have in photographs; the result is his Notes that appear in this publication.

The title was inspired by the work of the American photographer Paul Strand, which I saw for the first time around 1980, in New York and London respectively. His photographs moved me deeply. Strand’s The World On My Doorstep was published in 1994. His doorstep was literally the world at large. My doorstep — between 2020 and 2022 — was limited by necessity to a few kilometres around my house.