Giflandschap / Poisoned landscape

In 1986, commissioned by the city of Amsterdam, Berger photographed the transitional area between the city and countryside. In this peripheral region he stumbled across an area severely contaminated by chemical waste. He became fascinated by this landscape, where beautiful orchids bloomed. In this wasteland he recognised the opposition between form and content. This led to his large-scale project, "Giflandschap" (Poisoned landscape). Between 1988 and 1990 he visited 1200 chemical waste dumps in the Netherlands, recording 170 of them. Most of these photographs look like idyllic landscapes – until you realise that carcinogenic materials are to be found under these innocent looking sites. They are landscapes of extremities.