Darkrooms Magazine | Rob Severein - Foorbij Nij Altoenae

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An Ode to Emptiness

A few hundred meters from the Wadden Sea, on the very last dyke in Friesland in the Netherlands where houses still stand—where the wind can rage mercilessly—that is where my grandparents rented an old worker’s cottage on the Nieuwe Bildtdijk in 1968.

They would live there for thirty years, for 2 Dutch guilders 50 a week, and I would make the journey from Amsterdam to the north countless times. The first time was when I was about four years old, and I was sitting with my little sister on the freezing-cold loading floor of my father’s Volkswagen van.

It was a cold Friday evening in December and it was snowing. The journey from Amsterdam took nearly two and a half hours. The back seat of the van had been removed so we could take a granite countertop for my grandparents’ cottage with us.

Passing through villages with exotic-sounding names such as Sexbierum, Tzummarum, and

St. Annaparochie, we finally arrived at the hamlet of Nij Altoenae.

“It’s only a short way now,” said my mum, “we’re almost there.” She kept our spirits up.

After another two kilometres, cross the canal and then turn right towards the village of Nieuwe Bildtzijl.

I said, “But Mum, there’s absolutely nothing here …”

I think I fell in love with that rugged, untamed land at first sight. With the peace and quiet. With that land where you can just be yourself.Rob Severein

A larger set of Rob’s images and a longer essay will be one of the photo projects of the upcoming Darkrooms Magazine #11

See more of Rob Severein’s work on his website

Till next week,

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