What I like about Maartje Roos (1986), is that she doesn’t just take photo’s, but she uses her photo’s anno 2020 to create images that look as if they happened and were photographed some 100 years ago. Her work seems to be the photographic answer to the painting of the Old Masters, in which identity, nature and history are recurring subjects.
All her images start in her mind, but are triggered by local stories and have a strong connection to the countryside and historic events. When you look at her carefully detailed images, you are pulled back in time. The historic reality is transformed by her contemporary fantasy into a new reality and although you know it’s not real, because of her very detailed working method it appears real. Her images are all small quests for the connection between present and past and for the influence of that past on the present time. She determines how certain people, buildings, and other things looked in their heyday and asks herself what effect it has had on the world of today.
“I want to take the viewer into my world, my passion, fascination and stories and I hope that people consciously or unconsciously get something, a feeling, a message or recognition from my images and stand still, look and dream away.”
