This little pond is one I used to visit very often with my grandmother, who made a point of showing me the extraordinary in the ordinary. She installed in me a deep belief in the magical side of reality, which I so often speak about and which is one of the major themes in my photography. After receiving a box with slides which my mother took of me when I was just two years old, which showed me standing in front of large trees, in from of enormous root systems and in forest paths, I decided to trace back her footsteps. It was the last year or so that she was not yet disabled from walking by Parkinsons Diseases and so there are not any more slides or photos that she made of me when she was out walking with me. I put all the slides in order and traced her footsteps. Sometimes it took me a long time to find the correct spot, but it was incredibly satisfying all the same, knowing that she had had the foresight of picturing me with trees that years later, even before seeing these slides, became part of my photography port folio. This is one of the spots that she took a picture of with me as a toddler. She framed it very differently of course, at that time few people had many lenses on their cameras, but I was lucky enough to shoot in glorious autumn conditions with very still water. This is a very satisfying project to work on and a deeply personal one, but I am sure she would have loved it
Ellen Borggreve is a landscape photographer and author of Woodscapes and Praxisbuch Wälder fotografieren, among others. She was born and raised in the woods of the Veluwe where her love for trees originated. Besides forests she also likes to photograph Dutch coastal scenes.
The focus is on tranquil scenes..
Read more…