Achterland

Photographs made during a month-long journey through the Netherlands are paired with daily columns written for the back page of NRC Handelsblad. Moving through places such as Bovensmilde, Stadskanaal, Haaksbergen and Pannerden, Hans van der Meer observes streets, public spaces and the people who inhabit them. A traffic-calming structure, a man repairing a small car, an empty shopping square and two women on mobility scooters become starting points for reflections on infrastructure, bureaucracy, standardized town planning and everyday mobility. The combination of words and images views the country through episodes that can be funny, melancholy or poetic, while repeatedly questioning what these scenes say about Dutch society. The newspaper series was later gathered into a book, retaining the interplay between the photographs and their accompanying observations.