Rob Hornstra


Rob Hornstra is a Dutch photographer and self-publisher of documentary work, particularly of areas of the former Soviet Union.

Career

Hornstra studied Social and Legal Services at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences from 1994 to 1998; for a year from summer 1996, he interned and then worked as a probation officer. From September 1998, he worked for over eight years as a host and bartender at Muziekcentrum Vredenburg in Utrecht. From 1999 to 2004, he studied photographic design at Utrecht School of the Arts.
For his graduation project he spent one month in Russia photographing the lives of the first generation of young people growing up after the fall of communism. In the same year that he graduated he published this series as his first book, Communism and Cowgirls.
Since graduation Hornstra has combined editorial work for newspapers and magazines with more personal, longer-term documentary work in the Netherlands, Iceland, and the former Soviet Union. Hornstra considers himself a maker of photographic documentaries rather than a photographer; when not photographing for a particular purpose, he does not carry a camera. Further, he sees books as more important than exhibitions, and regards his own editing, publication and marketing of books of his photography as an important part of his work.
Hornstra prefers to work with film, in medium format or large format:
takes me quite a bit of time to set up my Mamiya medium-format camera and Horseman large-format camera. And that allows me to shoot more spontaneous pictures. Yes, it sounds contradictory. But snapshots aren't always so spontaneous by any means. When people have to pose for a long time, they eventually relax. Then you can really take nice pictures of them.

In 2006, together with the art historian Femke Lutgerink, Hornstra started work on Fotodok, an Utrecht-based organization that arranges exhibitions and other events for documentary photography. Itself inspired by Fotohof in Salzburg, Fotodok hopes eventually to create an exhibition space for documentary photography in Utrecht. Fotodok was launched in 2008; Hornstra stepped down as creative director in September 2009.
Starting with his first collection, Communism and Cowgirls, Hornstra has published his own books. These skip forewords by other writers, biographical notes, ISBNs and the other trappings of conventionally published books; by taking advance orders and selling copies directly and also working through a small number of retailers, Hornstra is able to avoid normal distribution channels.
Together with the writer and filmmaker Arnold van Bruggen, in 2009 Hornstra started the Sochi Project, which over five years would document the area of Sochi and the changes to it during the preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Hornstra and Van Bruggen express surprise that the site chosen for such a large winter event would be one so close to politically volatile areas such as Abkhazia and one that by Russian standards has exceptionally mild winters. Under the slogan slow journalism, the pair request donations from the public for the crowdfunding of a project whose timescale is impossible for the mass media. The stories Hornstra and Van Bruggen collected as part of the project have appeared in newspapers, photobooks and online over the course of the five-year period. The project culminated in the retrospective book An Atlas of War and Tourism in the Caucasus published by Aperture in 2013, and in 2014 an exhibition that toured Europe, America and Canada.
Hornstra and Van Bruggen have also created more democratic exhibitions, made entirely of newsprint, that can be shown on the walls of small galleries with no budget for framed prints or video installations: On the Other Side of the Mountains, two copies of which create an exhibition; Paris Photo Newsprint Exhibition, with thirty photographs; and three versions of Billboard Sochi Singers, each containing the sheets to assemble either of two posters.
Critic Sean O'Hagan, writing in The Guardian, said "Whichever way you look at it, The Sochi Project is an incredible piece of journalism, both visual and written, and a glimpse of the medium's future."
In 2019, Hornstra and Van Bruggen announced the start of another long-term project: The Europeans, inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson's 1955 book The Europeans and prompted by the recent rise of voters and regimes dissatisfied with the European ideal.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions, and pair exhibitions with Arnold van Bruggen

Communism and Cowgirls. Self-published, 2004. On the new, post-Soviet generation of Russians.
Rijk: Hoe een ideaal in een kwart eeuw werkelijkheid werd: Stichting de Arm. Utrecht: Autres Directions, 2005.. By Bram Nijssen; photography by Hornstra. About Stichting de Arm.
Changing Faces: Work 1. Photography by Stein and Issa, Orri, Thomas Neumann, Renja Leino, Arturas Valiauga, and Hornstra. Edited by Agnes Matthias. Essen: Museum Volkwang, 2006; Steidl, 2006..
Roots of the Rúntur. Rit Thjódhminjasafns Íslands, 10. Reykjavík: Thjódhminjasafn Íslands, 2006. Photography by Hornstra, text by Hornstra and Ingvar Högni Ragnarsson. About what were previously fishing communities in Iceland.
101 Billionaires. Utrecht: Borotov Photography, 2008. With text by Hans Loos and Arnold van Bruggen. The title derives from the assertion in the Russian magazine Finans that Russia then had 101 billionaires. However, the book depicts not these Russians but rather those who were "forgotten by capitalism". The book was nominated for the New York Photo Awards 2009 and listed among Photo-Eyes best ten photobooks for 2008.
101 Billionaires, 2nd edition. Utrecht: Borotov Photography, 2009. A cheaper edition with slightly updated text, whose publication was prompted by the news that the number of billionaires had plummeted to 49. Referred to by Hornstra and in reviews and notices as the 2009 Crisis Edition.
Sanatorium. N.p.: The Sochi Project, 2009. Photography by Hornstra, text by Arnold van Bruggen. The first of a series of annual publications from the Sochi Project, this booklet is about Sanatorium Metallurg at Sochi, which, like the other Soviet-era sanatoria in the area, appeared likely to be demolished and replaced with an expensive hotel in time for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Sanatorium won the "Photographic Book" category of the New York Photo Awards in 2010.
Empty Land Promised Land Forbidden Land. N.p.: The Sochi Project, 2010. Photography by Hornstra, text by Arnold van Bruggen. This 271-page book is the second in the series of annual publications of the Sochi Project. A portrait of Abkhazia, and of Abkhazians and Georgians exiled from Abkhazia. The book was listed among Photo-Eyes best photobooks for 2010 and was nominated for the 2011 Dutch Doc award.
Empty Land Promised Land Forbidden Land. 2nd edition. N.p.: The Sochi Project, 2012. Smaller format than the original, and updated.
On the Other Side of the Mountains. N.p.: The Sochi Project, 2010. Photography by Hornstra, text by Arnold van Bruggen. A photograph album on newsprint about the village of Krasny Vostok, in Karachay–Cherkessia. On p. 63 appear instructions on how to arrange pp. 3–62 of two copies into an exhibition, as was done during the 2010 European Month of Photography. Hornstra and Van Bruggen chose Krasny Vostok, on the other side of the mountains from Sochi, because nothing unusual happens there.
One Day: Ten Photographers. Heidelberg: Kehrer, 2011.. A boxed set, edited by Harvey Benge, of ten books of photographs taken on 20 June 2010, each book by one of Jessica Backhaus, Gerry Badger, Benge, John Gossage, Todd Hido, Hornstra, Rinko Kawauchi, Eva Maria Ocherbauer, Martin Parr and Alec Soth.
Safety First. Sketchbook Series. N.p.: The Sochi Project, . Photography by Hornstra, text by Arnold van Bruggen. Photographs of Grozny, damaged by an X-ray scanner in Grozny.
Sochi Singers. N.p.: The Sochi Project, 2011. Photography by Hornstra, text by Arnold van Bruggen. Singers performing chansons/popsa in the restaurants of Sochi and nearby resorts.
Life Here is Serious. Sketchbook Series. N.p.: The Sochi Project, . Photography by Hornstra, text by Arnold van Bruggen. Photographs of young wrestlers in Dagestan.
Kiev. Sketchbook Series. N.p.: The Sochi Project, . Photography and short text by Hornstra. Photographs of Sochi and its area, taken with a Kiev 6S camera.
The Secret History of Khava Gaisanova: And the North Caucasus. N.p.: The Sochi Project, 2013. Photography by Hornstra, text by Arnold van Bruggen. The story of one resident of Chermen, North Ossetia.
De Geheime Geschiedenis van Khava Gaisanova. N.p.: The Sochi Project, 2013. Dutch-language edition of the above.
An Atlas of War and Tourism in the Caucasus. New York: Aperture, 2013..
An Atlas of War and Tourism in the Caucasus. 2nd edition. New York: Aperture, 2015.. Smaller format than the original.
Man Next Door. Utrecht: self-published, 2017. Edition of 800 copies. Photographic portrait of a neighbour friend, with some captions.

Awards