Landscape / Nature | Winner
Saskia Boelsums
Nieuw-Schoonebeek / Netherlands www.saskiaboelsums.nl
Dutch Landscape
Concept
“As an artist and photographer from the Netherlands I feel strongly connected with the traditional Dutch landscape painters. At the same time that strong connection with history confronts me with the nearby future. The beauty I try to capture in my pictures, also is excessive and threatening. Cloud formations are increasing dramatic and the weather is becoming more extreme with unexpected peaks. It seems the classic historical Dutch landscapes are being replaced by landscapes and clouds arising from climate change. These developments I am very aware off. That is what my photos show: threatening beauty inspired by the great Dutch landscape painters.”
Vita
Saskia Boelsums was born in Nieuwer-Amstel in the Netherlands. She grew up in Iran and Curacao.
Boelsums studied Graphic and Spatial Design at the Academy Minerva in Groningen, the Netherlands.
Since 2013 she focuses on photography and was given a great number of nominations and prizes and exhibitions home ans abroad.
Saskia is a member of DuPho, Dutch Photographers, association of professional photographers.
Jury Statement
Saskia Boelsums’ visual worlds are familiar to us all – or, at least, we all think we have seen them somewhere before. Only when taking a second look do we recognise the influences of classical Dutch landscape painting that she ingeniously translates into contemporary visual terms in her series titled ‘Dutch Landscape’. The result is spectacular: the clearly defined, almost geometric, compositions generate a certain sense of wonder on the part of the viewer. In her dramatic scenes from the world of nature, Saskia Boelsums calls our attention to the increasingly visible consequences of no longer deniable global climate change. Her subversive creative strategy of luring viewers with scenes of apparent beauty before confronting them with environmental issues is successful in every respect.