‘’Versus’’ is an organization consisting of Dutch photography students (the Royal Academy of Arts in the Hague), creating a parallel group exhibition with CAFA (the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing) about various subjects concerning the theme: ‘struggle’. Versus is neither a plead for pessimism nor of a cynical nature but rather a celebration of opposites in the grand scheme of life. Versus’ aim is to address some of these experiences, by means of visual transcript.

In order to understand and to some extend partake in the process leading to this visual presentation, Versus reports about their process in a weekly column, which will indirectly function as a forum on their weblog: www.expoversus.tumblr.com  

Each column features a different student and an aspect of his or her motivation, progress and personal working method. The process and research of Thomas Nondh – and the result of prepared interviews and insight, lead by fellow photography student Timothy Zwitser – inspire this week’s column.

The core or root of our being is determined by our country of origin. Sometimes, even when we can’t remember where we are from, we have strong ever-lasting feelings towards this place. It’s a mysterious bond that is hard to explain to anyone not familiar with the phenomenon. The new world where we eat, work, pay taxes and find love is just a surrogate: there’s no cultural commonality, no pride or joy in knowing you live there. Thomas Nondh was adopted and has never seen his place of birth. Yet he feels drawn towards this ‘distant genetic habitat’. This recurring emotional connection manifests itself in feelings of loneliness, a social incompatibility and detachment.

Nondh’s process is best described as a journey across a rocky road. Around mid October he left his original subject behind and closed the shutters, a subject about a loss of exoticism in a technology driven society. ‘’We live in a world where everything is within arms reach; information is plentiful. I might never been to New York, but if I want to I can easily find live footage if it on the Internet. There’s a documentary about Istanbul on channel 4 and a Youtube channel on the tsunami in Japan with a live twitter feed on my telephone. This causes people to lose a sense of imagination’’

When he was finished with the summary of his last subject he explained to me what made him lose his focus. He tried too hard to make photographs that were directly inspired by other artists. It’s important for Jansen to be able to translate an extremely personal subject to the general public. ‘’It took me some realizing and re-adjusting to find a form in which I could stay close to my original idea without losing myself in it. I’m quite reserved and organised, these two characteristic features determined the place and object of my current work. It allowed me to evolve.’’ Thomas tells the story of his living room; the ivory tower of his resignation: or as he calls it; the reflection of his emotional state of mind. ‘’I’m extremely organised, the pristine condition of my room is a reflection of this, I can’t stand chaos and I never allowed coincidence to invade my life. It’s great to have photography to focus on this one aspect of my life, my desk seemed to have changed into a previously unknown landscape.’

Written by Timothy Zwitser 

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To explore the landscape of Thomas Nondh’s ‘’living room safari’’:
-January 13th
-Opening Event 
-Exhibition ‘’Versus’’



Creatief Warenhuis Hoop,

Grote Markt 10-13,

The Hague.

www.thomasnondh.nl 
www.timothyzwitser.com 
www.expoversus.nl