High in the mountains, the Great Wall of China winds through the landscape like an endless snake. Up close, you feel the coarseness of the stones, but from above, the wall looks almost like a brush stroke, carefully drawn across the hills and valleys. Towers rise like silent sentinels, reminders of a time when this wall was not just stone, but a border that offered protection from the unknown.
The sky is filled with a light mist that gently envelops the horizon. Mountains disappear into each other, as if time is in no hurry here. The wall disappears into the distance and seems infinite, as if clinging to the earth itself.
Each stone carries the burden of the hands that once placed it, and the stories of soldiers, peasants and rulers who linked their lives to this wall.
For the traveller standing here, it is a moment of silence. The Great Wall does not tell a loud story, but whispers softly. It speaks of struggle and hope, of division and connection. Above all, it shows that human dreams, however impossible they sometimes seem, can leave an echo that lasts for centuries.
My name is Marcel Bakker owner and CEO of BAKKM. When I was 8 years old, my father gave me my first (Nikon) Camera. I was immediately sold, my father loved photography and the development process in particular. In our small flat, the bathroom was his darkroom.. Read more…