Eurart

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"Oscar was 15 jaar lang molenaar." (Oscar worked as a miller for fifteen years.)

"Vinkega is the village where I was born in the eighties. It’s the village I left ten years ago to start a new adventure with my childhood sweetheart. Vinkega became too small for me, with little to do and little to offer. It was time to say goodbye to the village I grew up in. 

When I returned to Vinkega in 2009, due to a radical change in my personal life, I looked at it with a new pair of eyes. Not only I but also Vinkega had changed. New residents, from every corner of the country had decided to move to Vinkega and call it their home. All these new faces and all these new identities fascinated me, especially now being on a quest for my own identity myself. 

I decided to use the village for my research. I photographed, interviewed and visited the residents, to take a look inside their lives. I was intrigued by the different people and their stories and I tried to capture the pure and authentic way of life of almost all the residents of Vinkega, in both images and words. 

Residents who follow their hearts, dare to choose to live their dreams, and at the same time learn to live with radical things in life as well. This is what I focused on while shooting pictures. By looking at the people of Vinkega, and by feeling a connection to them, I dared to choose a direction which is close to my heart: photography."

Oscar, depicted in the picture, was a miller for fifteen years in Vinkega. 

N.B., This work has been previously made into an honorable edition of 40, in size 21 x 30 cm, by the artist's university, the Academie voor Popcultuur, with the purpose of being gifted to the academy's faculty in 2010. The present edition of 50 will be the only additional exclusive edition released based on this work and no more editions will be made in the future. 

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