One of the very first photographs that I made for this project in Holland was the one of my father’s cousins.  They all lived in the house that they were born in.  Eventually they were five in the house: four boys and one girl.  After their mother died, their father married another woman and had another child with her.  When the father was lying on his deathbed he told the first five to stay together and to stay unmarried so that the farm could continue.  If one of them would get married, the other four would have to come up with a buyout, which would have meant the end of the farm.  They all agreed, doing what their father wanted them to do.

This was a very common practice in this part of Holland during that time.  Even nowadays I have seen similar situations (for instance in Belgium).  When I photographed my father’s cousins, there were only three left.  During the last days of the project I was back again in my native area and I went again to see the last of the cousins still alive.  I had been driving around the area with his half brother Teet to see if we could find some more places for my project. 

When we went back to the farm, Joep, the remaining cousin, welcomed us like ever.  For me it was the first time I saw Joep since I photographed him together with his brother Wim and his sister Antje, eight years earlier (click here for the photo).  Another year and a half later I went back with my father to visit Joep.

Joep’s father, Herman, was my grandmother’s brother (on my father’s side).  When I photographed them, Wim told me how well he remembered sitting on the luggage carrier of the bicycle pedaled by my grandmother Marie and how long her hair used to be.  Strangely enough, that was almost the same story my father used to tell when he was telling about his mother.  He also remembered his mother washing her long hair with benzene first and with soap after that.  In the only pictures I know of her she always had her hair tied up.  I never knew my grandmother because she died young, when my father was only sixteen years of age.  I grew up with my grandfather because my grandfather lived with us until shortly before he died.




More images of Joep...






When my father retired, he left the house and built a new one not far from the old house on the spot where my grandfather used to own some land.  My brother Rob went to live in the house above the shop and he now still runs the shop, but does not live in the house anymore. The house is rented out and my brother doesn’t have any children, so the story will eventually end here sometime soon.






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