Photography: Enjoy Maurice van Es' collection of oddball sights he stumbles across
Different questions apply to different kinds of creative work. With some it’s “how?” for others it’s “what?” but for Dutch photographer Maurice van Es it’s very definitely “why?”
As he told this interviewer when describing what makes a good photograph: “I like to be aware of the idea that every picture you see has been taken by a person with a camera. Thinking what has driven the person to make this photo can fascinate me.”
It’s easy to recognise this philosophy in his ongoing series The Past Is A Strange Place. First started in 2009, Maurice describes it with neat simplicity as “photographs I made while living my life,” – aesthetic occurrences he feels the need to document and share with the world. There are some reoccurring themes – birds and foliage crop up more than once – but this is a series really only united by its randomness, and Maurice’s unerring visual sensibilities.
Maurice van Es: The Past Is A Strange Place
Maurice van Es: The Past Is A Strange Place
Maurice van Es: The Past Is A Strange Place
Maurice van Es: The Past Is A Strange Place
Maurice van Es: The Past Is A Strange Place
Maurice van Es: The Past Is A Strange Place
Maurice van Es: The Past Is A Strange Place
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Rob Alderson is a freelance writer, editor and strategist. He was previously editor-in-chief of It’s Nice That and WePresent, and editor of Design Week. He publishes the newsletter Undo, which tries to make sense of how AI is changing design work, the design process and the design industry.