Three questions with Leo Schindzielorz
All about his passion for photography
Ger Veuger's abstract art
With his combination of abstract photos and landscapes, Ger Veuger offers us a whole new way of looking at the world. Ger says: "As soon as I see a straight line in something dilapidated, it gets me thinking about abstract horizons."
A square cross-section of the world
Ger is a photographer and painter from Landsmeer, the Netherlands. He's passionate about photography; he likes to photograph anything he can get his hands on. This means he almost never leaves the house without his camera. Ger is particularly interested in landscapes and square cross-sections of the world. In his art, Ger tries to emphasise the horizon in landscape photos by mimicking the style of horizons in abstract paintings. Ger explains: "I've actually been drawing, painting and taking photos my whole life. When digital photography came on the scene, I threw that into the mix, which ultimately resulted in my abstract digital landscapes."
From photography to new landscapes
Ger's passion for photography came from Peter Carpentier's 'Prisma Fotoboek' (Dutch for 'Prism Photo Book'). "Various cameras and thousands of film photos later, it only really began for me when the digital camera came along," says Ger. These days, you mainly see him walking around with his lightweight camera, which allows him to move about with ease, discovering new places and capturing them from new perspectives. Using Photoshop, Ger combines his photos of landscapes with paintings and old materials, such as rust to create entirely new landscapes.
It starts with inspiration
"There are a few people who set me on the right track, such as Jan Groenhart particularly with his abstract landscapes and I also have to mention 'De wondere wereld' (Dutch for 'The wonderful world') by LuAnn Ostergaard. Also, on Flickr and Facebook, I regularly scroll past beautiful things and that again gives me a boost," explains Ger. By seeking out inspiration and photographing his own material, Ger automatically comes up with new ideas. "As things progress, you start to notice when it's going well. Sometimes it doesn't go well and then I abandon it. Often, I stumble across the 'missing link' at a later date."
Ger's favourite
Ger's favourite piece is his own interpretation of the Dutch estuary, the Eastern Scheldt. He made his digital artwork 'Easterscheldt daybreak' for his daughter-in-law from Zeeland. "In the Zeeland countryside, you find rows of trees everywhere and these are represented by the rust." Although the piece was originally meant to be a birthday gift, it's now esteemed as a piece of art. Ger says: "Crazily enough, it's my most popular image on Art Heroes."
