The soil the seeds by Sebastiaan and Emma Hanekroot

SIGNED

Over the past 25 years, Sebastiaan Hanekroot has photographed places in Europe where the battles of the great wars of the 20th century took place. Sebastiaan was born as the youngest of a large family with a complicated history. The members of his family had personal memories of both world wars. The stories – often only half told – were part of Sebastiaan's youngest years.

He tries to get a grip on this history through his photography. He also tries to understand why certain emotions exist within him that he cannot exactly place. This is a project that spans generations. Sebastiaan is the 3rd generation. From that perspective, he invited his daughter Emma Hanekroot (performer and writer) to write a poetic text that reflects on the same theme.

Text and photos are two autonomous layers in this book. They share the same history as it has been passed down through the generations. Why do we keep remembering those wars? Why is it so difficult to let go of this, even now that almost everyone who has experienced it has died. Feelings of sadness and loss that do not belong to the authors themselves but still live on in them.

The book's design is based on the idea that stories and texts float around us wherever we go. As if he had a butterfly net, Sebastian caught them on the pages of a blank book. Sometimes the images are neatly on the page, sometimes they half fall off and sometimes they end up in pieces on multiple pages.