- Fw:Books 2025
- Softcover, 1st edition, 128p
- New
Mountain ridges forming a jagged path towards the horizon. A small mountain lake reminiscent of a womb. Rampantly proliferating barren tree roots. In the photographic project Between the Mountain and the River by Rick van der Klooster, nature is simultaneously overwhelmingly beautiful, eerie, mysterious, and bursting with symbolism.
When he was still a boy, Van der Klooster’s mother, who died at a young age, often took him to her favourite destination: the Alps in western Austria. For the project Between the Mountain and the River, Van der Klooster revisited this area, with the camera serving as his intermediary. During his travels, which took place between 2018 and 2023, he experienced how nature not only mirrored his personal sadness and loss, but also offered comfort and hope. For the first time in years, the artist was able to hear his mother again, in rustling pines and whispering mountain streams. ‘The landscape returned to me what I had lost,’ he explains.
In his work, Van der Klooster is often searching for metaphoric qualities in nature. The series Between the Mountain and the River aims to highlight the spiritual importance of nature to human beings. In his photographs, the mountain landscape is much more than just a place of leisure; it is a portal to a different world, where no-one really dies as long as the landscape remains alive.
