Henk Wildschut Books

Rooted? is the third and last part of an unintended trilogy by Henk Wildschut on the lives of refugees and migrants. The exquisitely bound book focuses on the many refugee camp residents who find hope, consolation, and dignity in nurturing a few plants. These miniature gardens are often just a few tin cans planted with flowers, or of a handful of seeds struggling to sprout in a patch of meagre soil. They symbolize a longing for something resembling a normal existence. Wildschut has photographed micro-gardens in refugee camps in Tunisia, Jordan, and Lebanon, and recounts the stories of the gardeners who are now stranded, with little choice but to put down roots in foreign soil.

Nearby the harbour city of Calais in France, a parallel world has existed for more than ten years. Here, refugees from Africa and the Middle East await their chance to cross the Strait of Dover and reach the United Kingdom. Since 2005 photographer Henk Wildschut has followed the increasing stream of migrants whose journeys end in limbo outside Calais. Gradually, their forest camps have grown to resemble a city, with houses, restaurants, churches, mosques, and libraries. The paths have become a road network, and toilets and electricity have been provided. Rather than capture personal stories and portraits, Wildschut documents the physical traces of these "invisible" people.

"For Food, Henk Wildschut immersed himself in the world of today's farmer whom he originally saw as the most important innovator in the food production process. But even here appearances are deceptive: farmers are often forced to switch to a method of husbandry where efficiency and scaling-up are the name of the game, all under the banner of public health, food safety, the environment and animal welfare. This holds equally for organically produced food. In his endeavour to get to grips with the production and processing of food Wildschut, rather than restricting himself to modern farming, also directs his quest at vegetable breeders and cultivators, stock farms, hatcheries, fish farms, laboratories, inspection bodies and suppliers of abattoir equipment. Theirs is a squeaky-clean world where rules, regulations and protocols are riveted together in the stainless-steel abstraction of the industrial scheme of things; a world that often seems such a far cry from the food itself."--Publishers website