Fotobuch, 274 Seiten, Japanische Bindung, 244 Fotos, 44 kurze Essays, D/E, 2024

Since moving from Amsterdam to the rural Uckermark region in the former GDR, I have embarked on small sensory expeditions into the fascinating forest areas just a short walk from my atelier.I search for traces of their inhabitants, their users, their development, and their history. 

I try to feel my way into the forest creatures’ ways of seeing and thinking. I hang my wildlife camera in hollows where wild boars come to wallow in the mud, and observe what happens there at night-time. I climb up raised hides, brush the pine needles from a nuclear missile launch pad, and find traces of conservationists, foresters, and hunters at every turn.

It is exciting to realize that one can find many aspects of the big world compressed into this small area: the contradictory ideas of nature, the often opposing interests of various users of the forests, and the destructive influence of the climate crisis. Despite all of this, it is impossible to resist the elusive power and beauty of nature.

Idea and concept, photography, texts: Marieken Verheyen, Rutenberg
Graphic design: gebr.silvestri, Amsterdam
Publisher: Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld/Berlin
Printsupport: Johann Hausstätter, Berlin