Portrait Series – within WATERSCHOOL M4H+

A photographic series of 14 portraits of current community members of the M4H port area in Rotterdam, Netherlands – shot with a fisheye lens.
Created within a residency in 2021 at Studio Makkink & Bey in Rotterdam and exhibited in front of the Studio and the main exhibition – as part of the studio’s exhibition WATERSCHOOL M4H+ within the IABR 2021 – DOWN TO EARTH (International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam) and the Studio founders Rianne Makkink and Jurgen Bey as Co-Curators.

Check the Website for all photographic and textual Portraits: https://www.iabr-smb-downtoearth-waterschoolm4h.nl/plots/plot006/caretakers/photographer

Extracts from the website of the exhibition WATERSCHOOL M4H+ (Link: https://www.iabr-smb-downtoearth-waterschoolm4h.nl/home/plot001)

The photographer shares with you 14 personal stories by current M4H community members and their everyday activities in M4H, which happen outdoors or behind the facades of many inconspicuous-looking buildings in M4H where you sometimes would not expect much activity. A textual portrait of each person is followed by a resulting imagination of a possible scenario of future M4H+ activities that either reflects on the concept of the community or refers to the themes – fungi, seaweed, duckweed, insects, wood and education – of the overall exhibition and the fictional stories of the Storyteller. These 14 stories give you initial personal insights into the large richness in diversity of activities and a constantly developing M4H+ community.

WATERSCHOOL M4H + investigates how a range of resources can contribute to building a sustainable and circular learning environment, in order to meet the water challenge and ensure an optimized ecological footprint for the 6,300 future residents of M4H +. It illustrates what this new living and working environment could look like when guided by the use of the resources that will make it possible to achieve an equal interaction of all organisms, communities, and their environment. Insects, duckweed, seaweed, wood, and fungi are the five highlighted resources that shape the future of living in M4H +, influencing all areas of life.