Is there much beauty in industrial places? Places we pass over, because we tend to relate to them as purely functional in purpose?

Often, I’ve thought, that there is no room in our minds, for beauty or art, with such places.

Zeeland, like many other parts of the Netherland’s coastal polders and dikes is reclaimed land. Over the centuries engineers have heavily fortified, straightened, and dammed sections of the Dutch coastline.

I doubt that beauty was ever in the hearts of the engineers that reclaimed this land. And yet, beauty is what I found here. In concrete, fibreglass and steel.

Who would have thought, this landscape to be worthy of a photographic portfolio? Especially from someone who has spent most of his time photographing natural landscapes.

I would not have guessed that I would enjoy so much photographing a world built for function and purpose. A place that no one frequents.

I was intrigued that our world can have vast areas of land, dedicated to the design and function, of engineering structures that no one goes to, or lives in.

A landscape that is stark and austere of human ornamentation.

While I roamed the industrial regions of Zeeland, I felt that catering for human presence, if done, was done almost with a grievance. If done at all.

And yet, I still found much beauty. Beauty in the austerity of the technical design. Tower and blade. Abrasive concrete. Fibreglass and steel.

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Many thanks to my friend Frank Hoogeboom www.frankhoogeboom.com for showing me around.