• Dorpskerk

    Rottevalle

  • Heidi de Gier

    A Falling Horizon

Dorpskerk Rottevalle

Heidi de Gier - A Falling Horizon

The Sophiapolder is a small island in the Noord River close to Dordrecht. Hannie de Vos had a farm with sheep on this island. She herself lived with her three children on the mainland, and rowed over to the island every day to care for her animals. There was something un-Dutch about the island; broken down tractor could be left quietly rust away there for twenty years.

But this place could not escape from the planners; the island had to become a  fresh water tidal area. The dike would be broken open, and as in so many places in The Netherlands arable land would be transformed into new nature.

The farm was demolished, the soil scraped away, the reeds cut, and the avenue of trees felled, because everything there created by the hand of man had to make way for nature, plank paths and a bird-watcher's blind. When that is ready, the area will be opened for visitors, who can reach the island by a small ferry.

Dorpskerk Rottevalle

  • Buorren 18
  • 9221 TB Rottevalle
  • 2 Sept. through 7 Oct.
    Sat. and Sun. 1:00-5:00 p.m.

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Heidi de Gier photographed the last year of life on the island, concentrating particularly on the family who against their will had to say farewell to this environment.
Together with the designer Hans Gremmen and the text writer Tracy Metz, De Gier has also made A Falling Horizon into a book, in which time and memory are the central elements.

www.heididegier.nl