FOOD
Netherlands www.henkwildschut.com
The world population has doubled from 3.5 billion to more than 7 billion people since photographer Henk Wildschut was born in 1967. The explosive growth of the global population requires intensive, large-scale food production. The Netherlands is good at this: after the United States, it is the largest exporter of agricultural products in the world. Wildschut noticed that modern, large-scale production techniques do not necessarily lead to a deterioration of animal well-being, as is often assumed. And organic is not always as small-scale as we might imagine. The solutions to problems regarding environment, health and well-being can be found in innovation, not in nostalgia.
Henk Wildschut, born in Harderwijk, Netherlands in 1967, studied at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. He has exhibited his work in Amsterdam, Sydney, Shanghai, Beijing, London, Prague, Rome and The Hague, among other places. In addition to many self-initiated, long-term projects Wildschut has photographed for many Dutch magazines and for numerous design and communication agencies.
With fellow photographer Raimond Wouda, Wildschut has published two well-received photo-books.
He began his Shelter series in 2005. In 2010, this resulted in the book Shelter and the film 4.57 Minutes Back Home. In 2011 his book Shelter was awarded with the Kees Scherer prize for the best Dutch photo-book of the years 2009/2010. And he won with Shelter the prestigious Dutch Doc 2011 Award for best documentary project. Currently he is working on a project about the Dutch food production for the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.