FALLING MAN
In my latest photo book (2022) I combine three themes which, to my mind, came together in the early stage of the Corona crisis in 2020: death, sex and religion. Freud tangled together Eros and Thanatos: sex (or: life force) and death. I added a third transcendental dimension: religion.
Beginning in mid-March 2020, just after the Prime Minister of the Netherlands had announced the lockdown and the ‘new normal’ of the 1.5 meter social distance rule, I started visiting cemeteries and strolling for hours through the Red Light District (De Wallen) in Amsterdam, with my analog Rolleiflex in hand. The usually overcrowded area felt dystopian and deserted. Touching one another was not allowed, sex was on hold and churches closed down. I sensed the fear of death everywhere, as if life itself had been expelled.
The photographs taken at cemeteries, churches and the Red Light District, combined with the portraits I’ve been taking of family and friends with their eyes closed while contemplating their mortality - the Memento Mori portraits - form the content of my new photo book Falling Man.
