PRESS RELEASE 26 August, 2010

Noorderlicht International Photofestival 2010

5 September through 31 October, Fries Museum and Blokhuispoort, Leeuwarden

The International Photofestival 2010 will open on Saturday, 4 September, in the Fries Museum. In Land:

Country Life in the Urban Age, Noorderlicht looks at the consequences that urbanisation has for the

countryside. Simultaneously, Warzone, an exhibition examining the experience of war on the part of soldiers

dispatched to conflict areas, is to be seen in the Blokhuispoort. The opening, which begins at 5:00 p.m., is led

by the writer Arno Haijteman, chairman of the Silver Camera and photography reviewer for de Volkskrant. The

festival runs from 5 September through 31 October.

Land – Country Life in the Urban Age

Since the beginning of the 21st century, more than half of the world's population live in cities. What are the

consequences of this shift for the countryside? Is it possible, against all economic logic, to accord new value to

rural life?

Drawing on the work of some thirty photographers, Land – Country Life in the Urban Age exposes the

symbiotic but unequal relation between the city and countryside. Agriculture is organised around large-scale

production at minimal cost, the growing demand for agricultural products quickens the cutting of rainforests,

and whole regions are allocated new uses as a result of increasing need for water. Add to that the continuing

exploitation of ever scarcer natural resources, and the economic and demographic consequences of

immigration to the city, and one thing is clear: the countryside is facing serious challenges in the 21st century.

In 2011 Groningen will be the location for the second part of this diptych: Metropolis – City Life in the Urban

Age.

Warzone

Blokhuispoort

Verdun, Omaha Beach, Srebrenica, Fallujah: names of places that are anchored in our collective memory.

Places where the once serene landscape changed into a battlefield, where young men and women fought for

their faith, politics or ideals, lost their innocence, and sometimes their lives.

Military cemeteries and history books may remind us of them yet, but the battlefields themselves are

transformed after the conflict is over. Time erases the evidence – the rubble is cleared, the shell craters become

overgrown. But is the inner landscape of the soldier as resilient as the landscape in which he fought?

On the basis of work by top photographers including Ad van Denderen, Martin Specht, Paul Seawright, Peter

van Agtmael and Antonin Kratochvil, Warzone pauses to examine the experience of soldiers who have been

dispatched to conflict areas in recent history.

The official launch of the photo book Warzone will be on 25 September in the Blokhuispoort. The book contains

work by about forty war photographers and essays by Hans Achterhuis, Ko Colijn, Auke Hulst, Sebastian

Junger, Jeroen Kramer, Jaus Müller, Joris Voorhoeve and Désirée Verweij.

____ Note to editors:

Photographers who will attend the opening

Land Warzone

Evan Abramson Claire Beckett

Jeroen Toirkens Claire Felicie

Judith Quax Gitta van Buuren

Inamiya Yasuto Jeroen Hofman

Munem Wasif Lalage Snow

Evzen Sobek Lodewijk Duijvesteijn

Jeremie Lenoir Martin Specht

Pablo Balbontin Sander Foederer

Jackie Nickerson Teun Voeten

Laura El-Tantawy Giuliano Koren

Ian Teh

Corinne Silva

Mashid Mohadjerin

Eva Gjaltema

Tessa Bunney

Alexandra Demenkova

Michael Lange

Bernice Siewe

For more information, images and requests for interviews please contact: Djana Eminovic Email djana@noorderlicht.com Telephone +31 (0)50 318 22 27