From the series On My Doorstep
Hans Bol (1957, Amsterdam) makes small, intimate, mostly analogue prints ranging in technique from photogravures (toyobo) to handprinted silver gelatine and platinum-palladium prints. With these traditional 19th-century methods and a poetic approach to stillness and movement, Bol’s romantic aesthetics reveal through landscapes and scenes of nature.
Bol's work seeks, and finds, intimacy and tranquillity in the natural landscape of the Ooijpolder where he has been based for 30 years. “Living in the Dutch countryside, the word that always comes to my mind is rooted. The sounds, scents, temperatures, wind, animals, light, trees. It’s the place where I live and work, where I feel at my best – my biotope.” His project On My Doorstep explores the notion of home, using this series of photographs to reveal the artist’s immediate surroundings.
The title was inspired by the work of the American photographer Paul Strand, whose The World On My Doorstep was published in 1994. His doorstep was literally the world at large. Bol’s doorstep – between 2020 and 2022 – was limited by necessity to a few kilometres around the artist’s house.
Hans Bol is a self-taught photographer and bookmaker who, besides printing himself, closely cooperates with other printing experts in the field. His previous exhibitions include FOAM, Fotomuseum Den Haag, Museum IJsselstein, Museum Beelden aan Zee, Unseen and Haute Photographie. His work is included in such collections as the Rijksmuseum, Fotomuseum Den Haag, Het Nederlands Fotomuseum, Museum Beelden aan Zee and Fotomuseum Antwerpen. His new book On My Doorstep was presented in 2022 at the photobook fair Polycopies in Paris.