"Re-discovering the romance of the hills"

Landscapes and historical sites in Europe, seen through the eyes of a historian. I’m looking for the past where I know it is, and using techniques of the past to create my own interpretation, inspired by the artists of the romantic ages. In our digital age, I want to preserve the photographic language and techniques of the past, since they learn us something about the way we perceive the world. History is all around us: the landscape, as Simon Schama wrote, is made as much of layers of memory as of layers of rock.

My main interests are the mountains and the areas where the romantic writers, poets, thinkers and painters of the 1800s discovered the romance of the hills and hiking, alpinism and our concept of the "outdoors" was born. As a historian, I wrote about the history of alpinism, and am still fascinated by it. On my own travels, I use a Leica IIIf or Canon 7s - camera's with lenses from the 1930s and bodies from the 40s and 50s - if I need to travel light, or use large format photography with my Intrepid 4x5 camera (for a technical camera, still light enough for some day hikes). Analogue printing techniques are my fav, trying to get the right 'romantic' atmosphere using alternative printing techniques, mostly on Fomatone (for lith) or Fabriano watercolour paper (for the alternative techniques). I hope you enjoy what I make and enjoy!