End Frame: ‘Dead Camelthorn Trees, Dead Vlei, Sossusvlei, Namibia’ by Frans Lanting

Peter Schwalbe

I live in the Netherlands and I love to be outdoors making pictures, go out fly fishing and enjoy myself. Since my high school days I am interested in photography, however I never thought of a career in photography.

We have a strong Dutch tradition of landscape painters such as Aelbert Cuyp, Jacob van Ruisdael and later in time Vincent van Gogh. In the middle ages and the renaissance landscapes were just backgrounds for biblical and mythological paintings. However, in the Netherlands, the landscape genre in paintings started in the 17th century because then there was a market and it became very popular. Dutch painters travelled to Europe to study the landscapes or just use their imagination. Aelbert Cuyp for instance never visited Italy in his life, however, he painted landscapes in an Italian style, a combination of bright yellow Italian light with hillsides and hazy backgrounds. No photoshop in those days but the freedom of painting and the result of his imagination and craftsmanship. Nevertheless, we don’t really have a tradition of landscape photography. On the mainland, the landscape photography is more a part of nature photography than a single discipline.