On travel

Last weekend I and a few photo friends from Fotogroep Haarlem were guest of our sisterclub in Osnabrück, Germany. Between all the activities we had an hour to spend on photographing at a shunting-yard with old trains near the Pies Mountain. And being there you can choose many different points of view - of course without having had the opportunity to prepare yourself up-front, thinking about it. Still, after walking back and forth with the camera in your hand, you feel a 'story' emerging.

I got an association with ghost ships or space vessels that apparently are abandoned, but, after you climb onto one, suddenly sets in motion - steered by the invisible hand of an unknown life form that captures you to an obscure destination. Windows seem to invite you to take a look if you can detect the secret driver. Windows which reflections seem to mask what is behind it - or on the contrary, contain a clue about the destination. You start to feel the tension, and the curiosity where this might lead you. You look for more clues. Kneel down to see the switches and tracks, follow them to the next curve. You feel as if you are about to draw an important switch in your own course of life - beyond which there is no return.

In short, I felt reality shifting - felt the essence of what I want to achieve in photography: to experience reality beyond the visible, to capture it and to convey that shift to the observer too. Doesn't my photography want to be that ghost train that abducts the visitor - but possibly even more myself - to another, more-true reality behind what we can see?