Photo book The ORKZ

PHOTO BOOK “THE ORKZ”

What: The photo book “The ORKZ”, includes photographs of common spaces and 53 personal rooms and their inhabitants of a former katholic hospital, which in total hosts around 250 people. ORKZ stands for “Oude Roman Katholieke Ziekenhuis” meaning; old, roman, catholic hospital. This has been my home for 3 ½ years(and still is until this weekend). “The ORKZ” is my first finished photo book. It feeds the readers nosiness as it takes one behind closed doors of a community that has existed for 40+years. In the beginning of the book one can find an introduction by me, the author of the book, and a short description of how this place became what it is now. From hospital to being squatted to being legalized.

The main part of the book shows portraits and interior shots of a variety of characters and (life)styles, all coexisting under one roof. The photos are partially digital, partially on film, partially analog or even drone shots. In between on black backgrounds there’s photos of the whole building, shared spaces such as the bar and photos from events.

To each room/person a short description is added, adding names (also of pets), ages and how long people have lived in the building already.

The book has 220 pages, was printed 150 times in a format of 17x24cm with a matt softcover and comes with a postcard of a photograph from the buildings archives.

How: Started in 2020, I began asking friends and neighbors if they would let me take photos of themselves and their homes, throughout the building. The idea had been boiling up for a while and I started with my friend Anne, just before she moved to Rotterdam. It felt symbolic, showing how quickly this building changes and how this book will be nothing more but a depiction of the status quo and could potentially be redone very frequently, without getting repetitive.

Throughout the duration of a year I kept hanging up posters asking for people to let me into their spaces with my camera, chatting in the communal cafe about my idea and posting on the internal Facebook page. Due to covid I had to pause every now and then as it felt inappropriate to just step into someone's home. At some point the organizational aspect of this project felt too slow to me, so I just started knocking on hallways and asking directly, which worked surprisingly well.

Generally I took between 15 minutes up to 2 hours to have a conversation and get a feeling of the space, have a coffee/tea and take photos. The layout took me another 4 months, which I did in Berlin, next to my graphic design internship, where my mentor gave me feedback on the project several times. The printing process also needed several rounds of trials and I would still like to redo the printing in a higher quality If I am completely honest, but then the book would have been quite expensive and I wanted to make it fairly affordable to those living within the ORKZ.

Why: I am personally a very nosy character and I like to describe myself as a socially anxious extrovert, the social anxiety slowly deteriorating, partially with the help of this work. I had the excuse of the camera and this book to step into people's personal spaces and start a conversation based on the artifacts they surround themselves with. I explored how the wide variety of people live in this community and built a network within.

It challenged me in many ways; practicing my social skills, practicing Dutch, exploring portrait photography in personal spaces (which is still one of my preferred methods), Graphic design, publishing, selling my work…

I also see how this way of living has benefited me in becoming more open minded to alternative ways of living under one roof and step away from traditional, isolated ways of living. This thought I wish to transfer to the reader.

Even though Groningen is a relatively small town, many citizens have never heard of this place. I think that should change. How is one supposed to know what they might be missing, if they don’t know it exists? Or rather; how is one supposed to reflect on different ways of coexisting in general, if they only have the one example in front of their eyes? The social, emotional, financial and environmental benefits (and challenges) of communal living are topics very close to my heart, especially after having lived in this way. I now hope to advertise such to a broader audience through this book.