DE LENDE COLLECTION
The elders of the riverbank, in the light of another century
Koos van der Lende
Almost like fairy tale trees, unlike anything I had seen before.
— Koos van der Lende, on the water pear treesWater pear trees grow at the very edge of the river, deeply rooted and slow to change. In winter, when the water drops, their roots lie bare on the banks, twisted, ridged and folded like old leather, and every tree carries its own character, its own scars and its own long story.
Koos van der Lende spent two months in Zambia's Kafue National Park, and found the park burnt by poachers and the sky white with smoke. So he turned to the rivers. On the Lufupa, a slow brown river full of crocodile and hippo, he came upon these trees, and the idea came to him on the spot: the Africa of Livingstone and Stanley, a world from another century. He chose to work with shape, form and texture instead of colour, and gave the series the look of a photograph from the early 1900s, sepia toned, with aged and torn edges, to honour the age and the quiet wisdom the trees carry.
It is a departure from everything else in his archive, and one of his own favourite collections. For Koos it is where photography becomes art.
A single tree holds its ground, its roots spread wide across the bank like the lines of an old hand. Every twist in them is a season of flood and drought, written into the wood, and the leaf litter around it softens everything but the tree itself.
I was really fascinated by the root systems.— Koos van der Lende
Two great trunks lean together, their bark knotted and folded like weathered stone, while another old tree keeps watch across the clearing. This very print hangs in Koos's own home, and it holds the whole collection in one picture: age, weight and a strange, quiet grace.
The shapes and the forms of the trees are amplified.— Koos van der Lende
Old trunks stand in the shallows of the river with the light behind them, pale and ghostly, as if they have waited here for centuries and will wait for centuries more.
A very strong, well rooted riverine tree.— Koos van der Lende
Limbs reach out low across a dark, still pool, with the forest gathered close behind. A place that feels older than memory, where the only sound is the water.
In my mind, old photography from the early 1900s.— Koos van der Lende
Branches arch towards the river like the vault of an old church, and a lone trunk stands in front, worn smooth by the years. The light falls soft and even, and every surface shows its texture.
A total deviation from what I do normally.— Koos van der Lende
Heavy trunks lean over the leaf covered bank in a soft, ethereal light, each with its own character and its own scars. Nothing here is young, and nothing is in a hurry.
The African sky, normally so blue, was very white.— Koos van der Lende
Roots and trunks twist into one another until it is hard to tell where one tree ends and the next begins, like a gathering of elders on the riverbank.
It's not an easy area to work in.— Koos van der Lende
For close to two decades Koos van der Lende has travelled Southern Africa with a panoramic film camera, planning each picture days ahead, where the sun will fall, at what time, at what angle. He still works on traditional slide film, which is processed and scanned to make prints of rare quality.
His archive runs from the Namib to the Indian Ocean. The Water Pear Tree Collection is drawn from it for this site, alongside the Classic Collection, Sacred Forests, Evidence of Mankind, the Baobab Collection, Solitary Survivor and the Latest Release.
Moments of Grace, eighteen years of his panoramas from Angola to the Seychelles, a linen cloth covered, hand assembled book in a handmade leather pouch, opening to a full metre wide.
