A surreal landscape photograph with dark clouds and eerie birds in the sky by Dutch landscape photography artist Saskia Boelsums.

ART REVIEW: Dutch landscape photography artist Saskia Boelsums captures the beauty of climate change in a show that highlights Dutch landscape painting traditions.

BY KAZAD

AMSTERDAM- As the debate of climate change grows, many environmentalists are already hitting the panic button. From the unprecedented California fire to unpredictable hurricanes, tsunami, and volcanic eruptions around the globe, ecologists are becoming extremely restless about the future. Dreadful as the prediction about the future of the environment is, there are those who see the beauty in climate change. One of them is a Dutch landscape photographer and artist Saskia Boelsums.

Presently at the Eduard Planting Gallery in Amsterdam is an exhibition of landscape photographs by the Dutch photographer Saskia Boelsums that capture the beauty of climate change. Titled Landscapes, the exhibition features beautiful landscape photographs that point to the impact of climate change on the environment. While some of the images are threatening, others are sublime.

Saskia Boelsums’s intriguing still images reflect the beauty of Dutch landscapes. The interplay of composition, colors, forms, and light highlight Dutch landscape tradition advanced by painters like Willem Maris, Paulus Potter, and Jacob van Ruisdael. It is impossible to miss the influences of the Dutch painters in Saskia Boelsums’ landscape photography.  Her use of chiaroscuro and the play on light shows not just a strong connection to the Dutch tradition of landscape painters but also an outstanding ability to capture emotions.

Saskia’s Sublime Landscape Photography and Climate Change

Saskia Boelsums, Landscape 7. Photo: Artist

Saskia Boelsums’s landscape photography techniques show a deep understanding of her craft.  Some of the landscape photographs have threatening skies pointing to the earth’s ominous end.  In Landscape #7, the artist captures a cumulous cloud as it hovers over an eerie landscape. At the center of the landscape is a stream that starts from the foreground and guides the eyes into the distance. It is like a scene from a horror movie. However, inherent in the dreadfulness of this landscape photograph is a gripping beauty.

Before the Lighthouse

Saskia Boelsums’ Landscape photography settings are structured in a way to engender emotions and ensure audience participation. In Landscape #52, the Lighthouse Near Breskens in Zeeland, Saskia’s compositional power shines glowingly in a piece that bubbles with passion. On the right side of the photograph is alone lighthouse standing against an orange, blue, and purple sky. Located in the middle ground, the beautiful lighthouse guides the viewer from the foreground to the horizon where the turbulent confluence of colors seems to encapsulate the history of the lighthouse and sea travelers who have traveled this path.  The surreal calmness and beauty of the photograph illuminate Saskia’s power to arouse emotions.

Saskia-Boelsums, Landscape 52: The lighthouse near Breskens in Zeeland. Photo: Artist

Nature and the seasons present Saskia with amazing harvests capable of captivating many souls. To cultivate nature’s gift, no sky is high enough or sea wide enough to keep her away from nature’s bounty.  Even when the weather is bad, Saskia takes the chance to stroll through the fields to shoot her pictures. In order to achieve a certain sensibility, she would explore cold, darkness, fog, and the threat of dark storm clouds. For her, the feeling is everything:

I’m photographing at times when most people think it’s too bad to go outside. What I am feeling at moments like that, I want to share with the viewer. Cold, darkness, fog, the threatening of dark storm clouds. By exploring these landscapes and the different seasons, I feel connected to the universe. That intense feeling is what I want to pass on.

Natures Beauty

Saskia experiences nature as an inexhaustible source of beauty and the biggest source of inspiration. Over the years, she has continued to tap from Gods’ well of beauty in the most poetic ways and daringly, too. Landscape #11 reveals Saskia’s courageous quest to capture nature’s beauty. The photograph has the image of a man and his two horses walking towards a surging wave. In the distance, stratocumulus clouds of different shapes converge with the river on the horizon. What is the man trying to do? Any viewer will ask this one question as they contemplate the image. However, this photograph harbors an inherent beauty. The sharp contrast of the environment against the silhouette images of the man and his horses is arresting.

Saskia Boelsums, Landscape18. Cows in the woods. Photo: Artist

Saskia is a landscape photography artist with profound aesthetic sensibilities. She has the ability to turn an ordinary scene into an image of great beauty. An important example is Landscape18. This is a photograph of cows in a landscape. Saskia is “an artist with a camera.” The angle from which the photograph was taken, composition, and the play on lights make this image exceptional. Taken from below eye level, Saskia uses the cows to guide the viewers’ eyes to the trees and beyond, revealing the beauty of the sky penetrating through the leaves and branches.

Landscape Photography Artist

Looking at the works in Landscapes, it is not surprising that Saskia has built a strong name in the world of art photography in such a short time. Her landscape photography gallery is rich with captivating images nurtured by nature’s bounty. Born in Amstelveen in 1960, Saskia Boelsums grew up in Iran and Curaçao. In Groningen, the Netherlands, she attended the art academy Minerva and graduated in spatial and graphic design. In 2013, Saskia decided to focus on photography. She began her photography career by digging deep into Dutch rich cultural heritage and the beauty of Dutch landscapes. She notes:

As a Dutch visual artist and photographer, I carry a rich cultural heritage. That is why I feel a strong connection to the Dutch tradition of landscape painters. That rich history helped shaping me. And at the same time it confronts me with the future. The beauty that I try to capture in my photographs, also hides uncertainty and an undefined threat. I see the skies become more dramatic, the weather is becoming more extreme, our climate is becoming more violent. It looks like the classic historical Dutch landscapes and skies are being pushed out by landscapes and skies that are the result of climate change. I am very aware of that tension. That is what I capture.”

Saskia Boelsums’s works have been exhibited in Amsterdam, London, Berlin, and New York.  In addition to showing her works, Saskia has won a large number of prizes and nominations.

Saskia-Boelsums, Landscape-50: A goat sits in front of a tree. Photo: Artist

What do you think about the photographs of the Dutch landscape photography artist Saskia Boelsums? Share your thoughts. Leave a comment.