Dec 4

Dec 4 Photographic Alphabet: Z is for Giedo van der Zwan

Project “Pier to Pier” by Giedo van der Zwan.

“200 years ago, the first bathing houses were placed on the beach. They marked the start of the modern Scheveningen sea-bathing culture.

However, all those years ago, Scheveningen was mainly a poor fishing village.

The photographers family name ‘Van der Zwan’ is well-known in Scheveningen. Here, his grandfather had a fish shop and his father grew up here. The stories he heard from them sketched a completely different picture of the beach and the sea, which was full of dangers. Also, his father’s brother drowned as a child near the fishing Pier just after the war.

It was this contradiction that made Giedo van der Zwan decide to delve deeper with his camera into the contemporary Scheveningen. He kept coming back to the beach, the boulevard and the pier to visualize the local bathing and beach culture.

‘Pier to Pier’ is about the 2.5 kilometers of beach and boulevard between the northern fishing pier and the pleasure pier of Scheveningen.

The photographer has captured the almost inexhaustible flow of day trippers in a very idiosyncratic and striking way. With a sharp eye, vision, clever positioning, perfect composition, beautiful use of color and flash and always with a sense of humor.” ———Giedo van der Zwan