This week my photographs come from the north of the Netherlands. Land of moors, peat, and hunebeds. The cities of Assen and Emmen. But also the tragic reminder of former Nazi deportation camp Westerbork. 107,000 people, most of them Jews, came here. Most died in Auschwitz-Birkenau and Sobibór. Only 5,000 survived.
The photographs of this ongoing project will also be updated here.
All photographs by Wouter Brandsma
Wouter Brandsma 
lovely black and white stills!
Beautiful series of photographs, especially the last picture.
Probably one of the best series from the project till now.
Thank you all. Personally I am most content with the last photograph. It conveys for me such a personal emotion.
Hallo Wouter ,
Hartelijk dank voor jouw fraaie zwart-wit composities,speciaal het meisje voor het aquarium!
Knoop doorgehakt,bezit nu een grd111.BIj welk diaphragma tekent vlg.jou deze lens het mooist?
Veel succes toegewenst met vervolg foto-missie.
Groet,Hans-Arnold.
Hoi Hans-Arnold, Gefeliciteerd met je nieuwe GRDIII. Tussen f/1.9 en f/4.5 presteert de lens voor mij het best. Kleinere diafragma’s is met zo’n kleine sensor niet nodig voor scherptediepte en de lens wordt dan ook minder. Ik zelf hou hem vaak rond f/2.5 en bij minder licht ga ik eigenlijk altijd naar f/1.9. Veel plezier en goed licht!
Mooi serie Wouter!
Was vergeten te melden dat ik uit je foto’s kan afleiden dat je in een energie flow zit en dat de vakantie je nieuwe inspiratie geeft.
De energie flow is wel betrekkelijk Pim. Doorgaans geeft vakantie me niet direct nieuwe inspiratie. Alles is toch weer anders en ik wil me daar eerst vertrouwd kunnen voelen. Ik blijf eerst toch voor mij bekende onderwerpen fotograferen. Daarnaast kost het me deze week wel meer moeite om foto’s te maken.
Hello Wouter,
the book “Jewish in the History of Gelderland” from Bernhard Keuck tells the story of this german history (Die maken uns alle kapott) and for example about Claus Kaufmann from Geldern, who emigrant 1934 to the Netherlands, was deported to Westerbork and died 1944 in Auschwitz. Thats history, but today its sometimes not far away. For some years i did a series of pictures, photos in a Konzentrationslager near Berlin. Perhaps i will do it again. The second and the fifth of your photographs are my favorite pictures. Impressive.
Veel geluck, titus
Sometimes history is like a garbage can. We know what we put in it, but we keep on getting the same garbage over and over again. We unfortunately keep making the same mistakes. And you know what is even more tragic about Westerbork? It’s origins are a refugee camp for German jews in 1939. Than in 1941 it became a Judendurchgangslager.
Even now, take the tragedy in Norway for instance, people think that you can overcome fear by spreading hatred and more fear. A sorrow reminder that we considered the past as trash and didn’t look back.
Vielen dank Titus.
How right you are Homo Sapiens with all its brain power seems incapable of learning from the past. Right now I am in the middle of reading a book “The Third Reich – a new history by Michael Burleigh” http://www.amazon.co.uk/Third-Reich-New-History/dp/0330487574#reader_0330487574
It is chilling the quasi parallels that I find in terms of the upheaval that preceded Hitler’s rise to power and our current political and economical situation.
As to your photos I am a fan as you well know. But the pictures here made me think about the close interdependence of images and their context. I wonder if the last picture – your favourite – would create such an emotional resonance divorced from the story relating to its location.
In the last photograph, Geza, it is a lot more her gesture and the compositions that makes and resonance a feeling than the location. Introvert, thoughtful, melancholic, are thoughts that come to my mind. In the context of the series and the current political situation a feeling though that is only more emphasized.
Love your shot !