Daniël Siegersma

If I wasn’t what I am today I would imagine being what I photograph.
A ghost hunter that doesn’t believe in ghosts.
An ice-fisher looking down the hole in the middle of a frozen lake.
A choir singer singing songs in my regional dialect.
A farmer that moved the border between Belgium and France.
An expert on follies constantly analysing the intrinsic motivation of a self-builder.
An Amateur-rocketeer shooting rockets into the closed bureaucratic skies of The Netherlands.
A pigeon-fancier that tries to lure my neighbour’s pigeons into my enclosure.
A pilgrim building caves in people’s backyards in exchange for a bed and food.
A firefighter investigating hay-fires in the 80’.
The projects I make often develop organically. Firstly, I think it is important to gather a group of connoisseurs, enthusiasts, amateurs, experts, and local experts. For me, these people are frames of reference and sometimes also characters in the stories I want to tell. I see the projects I work on as a universe in which all these contacts trigger different storylines.
I mainly focus on local stories and how they relate to the time in which we now live. My work has a strong connection and wants to raise questions about local culture, language and how we humans use our time, specifically in leisure activities and tradition. How do they relate to the time in which we now live? Are these stories only relevant in the regions where they originated? And how do these stories correspond in other parts of the country and outside its borders?