Photographing the Past

Throughout the research of the Flevoland, Netherlands, I focused my interest on the maritime heritage of the region. Photographing the Past is a data-based project, visualising the local history of the former Zuiderzee. In the 20th century, during the process of land draining the submerged shipwrecks surfaced. Each rectangle is representing one of the ships which sank in the Flevoland area. The density of its colours is based on the time of cyanotype UV exposure, which was calculated from the dates of sinking and excavating the ship. The longer the ship was underwater, deprived of sunlight, the shorter the UV exposure of cyanotype. Basing on precise data, the project becomes a collective picture of the past, taken from the position of the present.