Edwin Zwakman (1969)
Flat blocks from inside and out, watercourses, polders, construction sites, parking garages, power pylons, or a set breakfast table; Edwin Zwakman can capture the essence of every piece of our world in his photographs. Not by photographing these things directly, however, but by rebuilding them in precise miniatures, which he then carefully lights and photographs in his studio. Like an architect or a model railroad aficionado, Zwakman rebuilds the world around him in an effort to understand it. He has little concern for whether viewers can see that his photographs are 'fakes.' 'It's not how it's done that's interesting, but rather that it is done,' says Zwakman. 'First, the image is there, and then comes the reflection on why.'*
One of Zwakman's series addresses the uniquely Dutch approach to urban development and the miniscule dimensions of the new Dutch apartment. 'I create the images from my recollection of all the times I've been in that kind of place. So it's really about my interpretation. I also think about the mentality of the creators, the urban planners. That means it's about people: individual lives stuffed into a structure with tiny partitions in between.' In reference to that mentality, the photographer notes very well that our viewing behaviour has changed. When he began in the nineteen-nineties, he often had to explain to viewers that they were not looking at real buildings, but models. Today, he more often finds himself explaining that contrary to the viewer's assumption, the images are not computer-generated, but are in fact 'real' models.
* source: VPRO radio broadcast De Avonden, 19 March 2008
