What is at home? Sometimes that is a t-shirt on a washing line

Free to the poet Hans Faverey you get to a photo of a still life of Erwin Olaf the thought: « The flowers in the vase on the table: those are not the flowers on the table in the vase. » On the photo is a fanning bouquet on a table for a wall with floral wallpaper. This makes the bouquet fuller one time, the other time army – depending on which angle you look. Olaf’s photo can soon be seen at the 18th edition of Fotofestival Naarden. The photo of Olaf, who died in September 2023, is one of his last he made in a series for the movie A great defect. The photo is also a bit about home – at least for those who have a big house and can lose such a bouquet.

At home is the umbrella theme of the oldest photo festival in the Netherlands, which after four years of absence is back in the fortified city of Naarden. At twelve locations, from 13 June to 6 July not only photos of dozens of photographers can be seen, but also lectures and workshops, and Leica Nederland is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

For this edition, the theme ‘at home’ was chosen because this concept seems simple, but is in fact subjective. « At a time when polarization and uncertainty increase, changing perspective is perhaps more important than ever, » said festival director Saskia Wesseling in the announcement of the photo festival.

Lonely t-shirt

At home it turns out to be a camper for one, for the other a house in the shade in a quiet street where the most movement is in a bike that falls between the rest. For one at home there is a lonely chair in a corridor, an igloo for the other. ‘Things here change’ gave Lex Chen the title to his photos of his view of the home: a faded t-shirt that hangs all alone on the washing line, perhaps waiting for it to keep him company. It is about the alienation, according to the accompanying text.

The photographer of the Netherlands, Marwan Magroun, has beautiful pictures of three women (his mother and two aunts), in which one mainly stands out: on a black and white photo they stand side by side hand in hand in the sand, further on the contours of a Tunisian city. While only the mother of Magroun lives in the Netherlands, this photo shows that is at home where your immediate family is with whom you can pose hand in hand for your son.

Photographer Rox Klijn comes with photos that give a twist to the words of the American top-essayist Olivia Lang: « Our Bodies Define Our Lives in Ways Beyond Our Control« Would the girl in the photo of Carla Bogelman also be aware of that? Bogelman photographed a girl who just jumped into the air for a little bit during the string. Feet off the ground, head back, so she not only remains anonymous, but also becomes universal.

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