An impressive series of panoramic black-and-white photographs by photographer Siebe Swart was shown for the first time at Museum Panorama Mesdag in the exhibition Time & Tide. The monumental photographs convey an immense sense of space, as Swart creates the illusion of primordial landscapes where time has stood still, without any human activity.
Storm surges, approaching darkness or a rising sun, mist and haze: for photographer Siebe Swart (1957), these are the ideal weather conditions for making his panoramic photographs. Swart describes his series Time & Tide as “a logbook of a personal journey of discovery along the Dutch coast.”
Panoramic
Swart chooses panoramic photography because he wants to show the vastness of the landscape as he experiences it on location. Visitors follow in the photographer’s footsteps and look over his shoulder. We see still images: empty, untouched land with an almost supernatural appeal.
Large Format
Each panorama in the series is assembled from many individual photographs, which are combined into a single, fascinating new image. This allows Swart to determine the desired balance among land, sky and water, and to adjust the position of the horizon, the viewing direction and the angle of view.
Distinctive Places
Moddergat, Zuiderhoofd, Schelphoek and Noorderleeg: most of the places where Swart photographs have unusual names. They are distinctive locations along the ragged edges of the Dutch coast, near old land-reclamation areas, tidal harbors or the Wadden Sea. A map marking these locations is part of the exhibition, as is a short film by Siebe Swart, Time and Tide wait for no Man: drone footage takes visitors on an aerial journey and offers an impression of these remarkable places.
Art and Nature
The series Time & Tide has great personal significance for Swart. Art and nature are inseparably connected in this project. Nature inspires art, while art lets you see a landscape you think you know through different eyes.
Swart shares this conviction with Mesdag, the founder and namesake of Museum Panorama Mesdag. Mesdag’s nineteenth-century Panorama became an ode to the Seinpostduin, a landscape under pressure that needed protection. Like Swart’s photo series, it prompts reflection on the consequences of our own actions. For Swart, the images in this series are connected to the threat of rising sea levels due to climate change.
The exhibition Time & Tide was on view at Museum Panorama Mesdag from October 17, 2021 through February 27, 2022.
