Photographer and cameraman Edwin Donders has seen the shores of the IJsselmeer change since he began to live there. Dykes are being reinforced and raised, beaches disappear and appear. Resorts are springing up like mushrooms, just like the wind farms. And even the Afsluitdijk is not exempt from modernisation. Edwin’s eye often falls on circumstances where man tries to make the 'best' of things and thus leaves his mark.
In ‘Een rondje IJsselmeer’ (An IJsselmeer tour), we see a beautiful series of photos in which Edwin has recorded our interventions around the lake. Sometimes subtle and almost unnoticeable, but more often magnificently present.
Edwin decided not only to photograph the IJsselmeer, but also to delve deeper into the lake, which used to be a dangerous inland sea. That is how he came across the 1932 collection of sagas and legends around the Zuiderzee by Simon Franke. Franke's old-fashioned, yet fluent language formed such a beautiful contrast with Edwin's modern photographs that he decided to select a number of stories and include them in the book.
