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Photography

Born in the Netherlands and now living in Toronto, I've been captivated by image-making for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I hijacked the family's ancient Kodak camera and started taking snapshots - strangely, around the same time I started picking up stray rocks that interested me. The two have stayed intertwined, with the benefit that rocks too large to stick into my pocket (usually Plan A) could always find a place in my camera - especially as the Kodak was eclipsed by 35mm and, eventually, digital imaging.

At first, I photographed the usual fleeting impressions of places and things. Later, I began to look more deeply at how the spirit of a place or a thing expresses itself, to try to find the magic that lurks in the forms, rhythms and details we encounter every day. I still feel that I'm just scratching away at the surface of my themes, but they gradually become clearer with each new image. A photographer learns to be patient while waiting for the light!

A few of the themes that run through the images:

Ruins and Megaliths

There's a meditative quality to ruins and wreckage of all kinds, when time slowly returns human artifacts to the natural world; they evoke a special kind of melancholy. I'm especially attracted to the ancient stone monuments of Europe, and have visited ruins from the Netherlands to their cousins at places like Stonehenge, Avebury, Brittany and the Balearic Islands.

Detail and the Spirit of Place

Details often express the spirit of a place better than sweeping views. In smaller equivalents we sometimes see the whole more clearly, as the photograph forces us to frame and look more closely at the part rather than the whole.


Light, shadow and Reflection

Light, shadow and reflection can open up unexpected dimensions - they can suddenly accent, obscure or invert our conscious experience and destabilize it for a moment. An image of one thing becomes an oddly refracted image of something else, making us question what's really in front of us.

Micro and Macroscapes

I'm fascinated by the blurring of scales, how small details and textures can suggest whole landscapes, and large forms can collapse into abstract microscopic details. Remove the context and something else begins to appear.



John Kuipers


The images here reflect my interest in natural form and texture, landscape and my romance with megaliths and the old stones of Europe.
About the photos...

About the megaliths...

Under the Megaliths menu heading, the slideshows explore ruins in Holland, Germany, England, France and the Balearics. Under the Photography menu heading, Themes focuses on detail, texture and ambiguity. Places draws from various travels.

Most photos are available as archival quality photographic prints, and as digital image rights. Please inquire for information.