HORNSTRA, Rob - Empty land, Promised land, Forbidden land

Background information, personal statement by the photographer, Rob HORNSTRA

In the photo volume 'Empty land, Promised land, Forbidden land', we explore the unknown country of Abkhazia on the Black Sea. Abkhazia broke away from Georgia after a short, violent civil war in ’92-’93 and was recognised as independent in 2008 by Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and the atoll of Nauru. We have spent the last four years travelling through the country, seeing how it is slowly trying to claw its way out of isolation. We visited the refugees in Georgia and described the attempts made by the Abkhazian government to repopulate the empty, war-ravaged country with new immigrants." (© Rob HORNSTRA, in: 'The Sochi Project')

Book review, content

"You’re probably aware of the fact that if you skip the essay(s) in most photobooks, you’re not missing much (if anything). In the case of 'Empty land, Promised land, Forbidden land' by photographer Rob HORNSTRA and writer Arnold van Bruggen (see their joint site 'The Sochi Project'), you would miss at least half of what makes this book what it is. This points to the fact that while you could treat 'Empty land, Promised land, Forbidden land' as a photobook, in reality it’s something different. In a nutshell, it’s a documentary, transformed into book form.'Empty land' is the result of a series of trips to Caucasus (and Turkey), in particular to what is now the Republic of Abkhazia, a tiny sliver of the Caucasus currently recognized by four countries (plus two other regions that basically have the same status as Abkhazia; in terms of size Abkhazia is not quite three times the size of Rhode Island). In a nutshell, if you follow the news closely you will be at least somewhat familiar with Abkhazia, otherwise you will have never heard about it. Of course, 'Empty land' is a great opportunity to change whatever you might know completely, because the book chronicles the region’s evolution from Georgian break-away province to more or less independent country over the course of a few years, starting in 2006. You could probably have all kinds of arguments about whether or not Abkhazia should be independent or whether it should be part of Georgia, and, who knows, there might even be some merit to such arguments. But if you pull back a little bit, those debates aside, there are lots and lots of personal stories, to be told by the people who live there or lived there, and it’s those stories 'Empty land mostly centers on. Through the photography by Rob HORNSTRA and Van Bruggen’s text you get to know the people in the region. You learn a little bit about history (recent and otherwise), you learn a lot about local customs (which all seem to involve incredible hospitality and rather heavy drinking), and you learn something about two dedicated journalists, traveling across the region, trying to get the material for the stories they want to tell. What makes 'Empty land, Promised Land, Forbidden Land' so fantastic is not just that it informs you about the region and offers you some photography, it does it in a way that, I think, hints at where at least some contemporary photojournalism is moving.
Oh, I know, is this photojournalism? Shouldn’t I call this documentary photography? But then maybe the time of the macho photojournalist, parachuting into some conflict region for three days to take more pieta photographs, is truly over (no really, I don’t need to see and certainly don’t need to hear any more of this stuff). These days, we really need something else. ('The Sochi project' is a crowdfunded photo journalism project) In terms of the photography, 'Empty land, Promised land, Forbidden land' matches the quality of 101 Billionaires easily. I’m even tempted to say that the photography has evolved a little bit and has become even better. - A most excellent book, highly recommended." (© Joerg COLBERG)

Additional information

This edition of 'Empty Land, Promised land, Forbidden land',' by Rob HORNSTRA and Arnold van Bruggen is the second revised edition of the book. It is slightly smaller than the original edition and has been updated with recent photography and current developments. Apart from these minor updates and modifications, this is the same book as the original 2010 edition.

About the Dutch photographer, Rob HORNSTRA (b. 1975)

Photo books by Rob HORNSTRA