This week I have a nice round number of photos in my Vogue Italy portfolio: exactly one hundred. The latest photos you can see there were shot on film in the Loet forest, and today I want to share them as a series.
In the past months I had this new addiction, and you could often see me shooting analogue with my nice new (old) Rolleiflex. I often walk in the Loet forest in Krimpenerwaard, not too far from Rotterdam. This nature reserve was created in the fifties when some polders where “given back to nature”. It has become a beautiful quiet area with varied flora and fauna. You can walk or cycle through a number of picturesque paths enjoying whatever season it is and observing the nature.
Photographing with a Rolleiflex is a pleasure. Yes, I am limited to one fixed lens that cannot be changed. But limitations can feel liberating sometimes. You do not get overwhelmed by too many possibilities and do not regret not taking an extra lens with you. I simply slow down and enjoy contact with nature. Besides, the lens on my camera is not just some average lens but a high performance Zeiss Planar, famous for its sharp images and beautiful rendering. And with medium format film you capture so much detail, perfect for large prints.
Vintage optics and film (whether black and white or color) produce images that appear to look timeless and have a different feel to them. It is so easy to imagine these photos taken fifty years ago or earlier. This always makes me contemplate about time, the things around us that change and those that remain the same.
In these photos taken in the Loet forest you can watch the seasons change as spring blossoms turn into apples. Lots of apples are still on the trees, although the “one red apple” is already gone, just like many others that fell or had been plucked. In case you are curious: these apples are very sour. I picked up one of the fallen apples and made a mousse of it.
Enjoy the Indian summer!