photo: © Bas Breetveld - Biesbosch
Early in the morning misty creeks beckon. When you step into the boat, you feel it immediately. Even on the darkest days, water works wonders. Nature soothes the senses and restores the mind.
Finding peace in nature is a natural response. Particularly for people with a deep-seated need for connection with the natural world. The Dutch photographer Bas Breetveld made the Biesbosch - one of the last extensive freshwater tidal regions in Northwestern Europe - his second home.
As a self-taught artist, Bas Breetveld has built up a reputation over the past ten years as a professional, accessible landscape and nature photographer. During his photo trips he enjoyed sharing his adventures and helping others develop their skills.
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Bas was known as the beaver whisperer of the Netherlands, due to his skills and patience in locating and observing these elusive, mainly nocturnal, semi-aquatic animals. Beavers are the second largest rodent in the world and have the ability to naturally restore freshwater swamps and turn them into fantastic oases of life.
After a stay in Alaska with his wife Nancy and the legendary Canadian naturalist Charlie Russelll, who Grizzly bears observed and photographed in Katmai National Park, Bas realized that his future was 'outdoors'.
The Biesbosch and the brown bear do not seem to have much to do with each other. Yet they walked around here not so long ago. Until the 11th century AD... ~Bas Breetveld
After experiencing wildlife encounters himself, he understood the importance of ecotourism to promote knowledge of nature and started nature photography tours in this wetland area.
Kingfishers and beavers were his original totem animals. Driven by his passion for technology and innovation, Bas developed new shelters and equipment. As many travel companions said, the boat trip on the river and kayaking in the creeks, but also the quiet hours in photo huts waiting for 'the big moment', left unforgettable memories that gave the lives of many participants new depth and meaning.
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Bas captured the essence of wild nature in the lowlands through intimate portraits, being a photographer as well as an environmentalist and artist. In recent years his work has evolved beyond wildlife photography. He looked for the essence of the ever-changing play of light and water in the wet landscapes.
Bas found inspiration in the Zhuangzi, one of the foundational texts of Taoism. A core concept in Taoism is the art of perception. One of the most difficult obstacles to see clearly, according to Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zhou, is preconceived ideas and practices; letting go of that is the key.
"This is her, the stump of the Kingfisher stumps. There she lies, shining in all her beauty with her voluptuous yet sharp lines, untouched by man and machine for decades. Only the deep wrinkles in her skin reveal her age. Underneath the improvised camouflage, it almost made me emotional. After all those years of looking for the stump and there she was. I lay there on the floor of the boat for hours, enjoying it." - Bas Breetveld
According to his friend Jan van der Greef (impressionist nature photographer and professor of analytical biosciences) it was "A different way of observing, and being inspired by interconnectedness, by the harmony between the detail and the context".
The Zhuangzi uses the analogy of artists who do not rationalize, but go with the flow, create instinctively and spontaneously and become one with their process and path. This profoundly influenced his later photography.
Drawn to the Light
Instead of photographing the outside, Bas started capturing the inside - reflections of the observer's inner self and what is observed. It was about crossing boundaries and moving beyond separation and singularity, including organisms and events.
Observing without bias or preconceived ideas, capturing the essence of life as it unfolds, without schedule, just moments.
Bas took his boatmates on a journey through different states of mind, straight through swamplands and camera lenses, ultimately returning to land at the end of the day as a different person. Closer to the core, even if only for a moment, but with an internalized experience to which one can always return.
I lay there on the floor of the boat for hours, enjoying it. ~Bas Breetveld
This state of flow, of being completely immersed in a sense of focus, complete involvement, the lack of sense of time and enjoying the process of creativity, contributes to happiness and growth. Life itself cannot be captured, only experienced and embraced.
Beavers lost their whisperer Bas Breetveld on December 5, 2019.
His photos and thoughts remain an inspiration to all who wish to become one with The Way (Dào 道) by living in harmony with (their) nature.
Bas Breetveld on YouTube:
