OurColony.net

About 10,000 agricultural businesses in the Netherlands are closed every year. Where once there were grazing cows, now there are golfers playing the back nine or rows of campervans and tents--or even farm museums. Some businesses decide to specialize instead, becoming organic farms, seeking out sideline activities, or in fact becoming even bigger and more intensively industrialized farming operations. These developments have far-reaching consequences for the Dutch landscape. SKOR (Foundation for Art in Public Spaces) invited eight internationally respected photographers to capture this transformation in images. Each of the invited photographers chose a particular region or province, depending on their personal interests. Koos Breukel portrays farmers in the provinces of Friesland and North Holland; Joachim Brohm gives an impression of modern-day farming in Flevoland and Zeeland; and Sean Snyder offers video recordings of the landscape in the province of Utrecht shot from his car. Also included are photographs by Noritoshi Hirakawa, Ralph K mena, Johannes Schwartz, and Martin & Andrea Stulti'ns, plus archival images. Four accompanying essays 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.