Documentary photographer and videographer Friso Spoelstra explores for Sublime “In Picture” a taste of self-sufficient, low-impact environmental living in the rural Netherlands
Society expects a lot from us. Some say too much. We have to make a career and always show off on social media how well we are doing. And that causes stress. You would think that this can be remedied with some rest, but sometimes that is not enough. It is then when we crave to get away from the busy modern society and go back to nature… But is that always possible? For example, in such a small, organised, and overpopulated country as The Netherlands, how realistic is it to get away from the city? Away from the people? And what does it look like?
With these questions in mind, I started this project, a series of photos to explore a radically different way of life: one with as much freedom from social convention, and as little ecological footprint as possible.
In Pictures
The Radstake family on the porch of their home.
Daughter Lelie Radstake enjoys home education and an anti-authoritarian upbringing. It leaves her enough time to play around the house and learn about plants and flowers in the garden.
Living interior of the Radstake family. This house is made of a construction of sandbags and flexible trees. It has an exemplary function for the self-sufficient Living Village that they ultimately have in mind. This village will have food from a food forest, electricity through wind and sun, and water from the soil or a rain barrel.
Thirza (left) and Terra de Graaf (right) in the food garden of ecovillage Land Van Aine, where they both live.
Residents of ecovillage Land van Aine at work in their circular food garden.
Linde, Kjeld and their son Sim live on the Roggebotstaete estate, an experimental garden in Flevoland. This is a young nature reserve in one of the polders where the focal point is edible nature. They live here for free in their own made tiny house. In return, they manage the estate and supervise the sheep of which one of them was on the menu that night.
About the author
Friso Spoelstra is a documentary photographer and videographer from Amsterdam affiliated to agency Hollandse Hoogte/ANP. Since his graduation from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy he works on self initiated projects and on commission. He made two photobooks: ‘Devils & Angels, Ritual Feasts in Europe’ and ‘Boat People of Amsterdam’.
frisospoelstra.com
