What did Emmen look like over a hundred years ago? Artist Jan Oosting, who grew up as the son of the zoo director, knows it well. More than a century ago, his grandfather, also Jan Oosting, took pictures of all kinds of places in and around Emmen.
He thinks it would be a shame not to do anything with these photos. That is why Oosting is now copying them. And that is quite a challenge: from a black and white photo to a painting.
“These are photos taken with a plate camera between 1910 and 1920,” says Oosting, while working on a painting with two cows. “The photos were taken in Emmen or in the immediate vicinity. It is often unrecognizable because so much has changed in Emmen, you hardly see it anywhere else. That makes it unique that you take a look at Emmen from a hundred years ago. That was completely different. Also the peace and space, you can also see that in the paintings.”
It is the intention that a book will be published later this year, containing the old photos and images of the paintings. Photos of the current situation will also be added. “I did not know my grandfather, he died at the end of 1941 during the war. I am from 1947,” Oosting explains. “He really thought in black and white and in contrasts. You often see a ‘Z’ or a ‘7’ in his photos. That had to be in the landscape for the spatial construction.”
Photographing a hundred years ago was not as easy as it is today. A large camera came along and the frame was made the other way around. “An extra prism would otherwise be needed to turn it around,” says Oosting. “And of course it wasn’t cheap to develop everything.”
(text continues below the photo)