27.) Hans Bol — Genevieve Kerr

Hans Bol is a Dutch landscape photographer. His most important works have come from his experiences in the stone quarries in and around Carrara, Italy. The photographs he made there between 1985-2011 are metaphors for the way humans interact with the environment. Amongst the destruction, Bol was able to find a lot of intimacy, beauty, and history within the area. He discovered a quality of life around the quarries that he has never seen before on his travels

Through his experiences, Bol has learned that positive and negative come together in any environment. The images below are from a series that depicts landscapes that have been left relatively untouched. Preserving an environment is not something that is very common in the Dutch context with regards to landscape. After Bol finished this portfolio, plans developed to have the entire area filled with water to make it a basin for the river that floats through it. The idea of positive and negative, beauty and destruction comes into play in this situation as well, reinforcing the fact that in life, these two extremes usually come together - one does not come without the other. Bol’s photos are a reminder of this balance in life. Beautiful things are often temporary, as destruction will come along one day and change everything. However, the same can be said about destruction; one day the beauty will return, and the cycle of change will repeat.