Plastic Sea, Perfect Storm – Rob Hornstra and Arnold van Bruggen

image: Rob Hornstra, La Mojonera , 2025, © Rob Hornstra / The Europeans

In the vicinity of the southern Spanish town of Almería lies the largest greenhouse complex in Europe. Every year, approximately 3.5 billion kilos of vegetables and fruit are grown here for supermarkets throughout Europe. Behind this enormous production lies a world that is usually barely visible. For Plastic Sea, Perfect Storm, photographer Rob Hornstra documented the lives of undocumented migrant workers. Writer Arnold van Bruggen recorded their stories. Many of these migrants work six days a week under harsh conditions.

Because temperatures in the greenhouses can rise to over fifty degrees during the day, part of the work is performed at night. Hornstra and Van Bruggen portray the workers in a landscape completely dominated by plastic. They live among the greenhouses, sometimes in self-built shelters made of discarded pallets and other materials.

Plastic waste from horticulture is also present everywhere and is slowly becoming part of the landscape. The exhibition reveals how food production, migration, lawlessness, pollution, and climate change are interconnected. The photos and stories paint a poignant picture of people who are essential to the European food supply but enjoy hardly any protection themselves.

Plastic Sea, Perfect Storm is part of The Europeans, the ten-year project in which Hornstra and Van Bruggen investigate what it means to be European today. To this end, they travel through various European regions where major societal changes are becoming visible. The project is inspired by Les Européens, the photobook published by Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1955.