This research focusses on Soviet monuments and graves in and around the city of Berlin, Germany. When I visited Berlin some years ago I was struck by these monuments and how they somehow feel both entirely relevant as well as strangely misplaced. 
Since I was a kid I have always been fascinated by what has happened in my neighbor country during the war and how it has affected the German people after the war. A deep feeling of guilt and an awareness of the unspeakable has marked the generations after the war. It is only since the last decade that I started noticing a transition with the younger generation. I was able to talk with German friends about that what was tabu before. There was an outspoken sense of being able to be proud again of being German. The allowance of a sense of nationalism has to do with re-finding one’s identity and roots. During my research about the Soviet memorials the various statues and graves somehow reminded me about this struggle with the German identity. I found out that after World War 2 it was enshrined in the so-called two plus four treaty that Germany is obliged to maintain Russian war memorials and graves in perpetuity. While the city of Berlin is more vibrant than ever before, being a cultural hot-spot for people all over the world, these often dramatic Russian memorials are eternal, never to be removed from the Berlin landscape.

Das Rosarium

Shot on three different locations in the provence of Groningen, The Netherlands, these landscapes encircle my childhood hometown. One could say perhaps, that they defined my upbringing to a certain extend. 

I was always fascinated by the landscapes of Groningen, the flat, open spaces where everything seems to move at a slower pace. Hybrid Landscapes investigates a common denominator that seems to defy this northern Dutch area for decades now: an imposed industrial surge that struggles to get proper footing.

Hybrid Landscapes

For this collaborative project, Doornbos worked together with conceptual designer ManHong Lam at the Tenjinyama Art Studio in Hokkaido, Japan. Point of departure is a 1936 grand tour undertaken by the Japanese Emperor in Hokkaido. It was a large scale military exercise and Imperial propaganda tour in order to bind the local people of Hokkaido to the Empire. It also was to be the Emperors last tour with the divine status as Ikegami, or living kami (God). For this project, Lam and Doornbos investigate how both photography and design helped shape a mythologization proces that is strongly connected to the traditional Shinto belief.

This presentation is the first result of the ongoing research project. The project is generously supported by Stichting Gerbrandy Cultuurfonds and CBK Rotterdam.

The Wanderers

GAZE goes further where Hybrid Landscapes left off. It is an attempt to further investigate contemporary landscapes in the most northern part of the Netherlands where I grew up. 
GAZE is presented as a multi channel video and audio installation with a phenomenological point of origin. It has been displayed at the international photo-festival Noorderlicht and at LP2 in Rotterdam.

GAZE

Live for the Future, Long for the Past researches various elements that capture the current times of Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s present situation is both complex and frail. Since 1997 it became part again of China after a period of 99 years being a British colony. Hong Kong has been promised a transitional period of fifty years where it has it’s own government, independent from the communist Chinese system. However, over the last years in particular, serious fractures have appeared in the agreement. In 2014 the growing discontent resulted in a mayor and lengthily protest.
In Live for the Future, Long for the Past, I travel all over Hong Kong documenting it’s people and it’s landscapes. In this work I try to portray a picture of a place that has a sense of nostalgia and that superficially almost looks romantic. Yet, behind the surface there are mayor political and social transitions taking place, greatly impacting Hong Kong’s daily life and it’s future.
Because of these complexities my research based approach became a vital part in trying to understand what I am documenting. It helps me provide various points of identification.

Live for the Future, Long for the Past

During my visits to Hong Kong I met an elderly lady and her maid, Mary, a Philippine domestic helper.  Foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong are domestic workers employed by HongKongers, usually families. The vast majority are woman from the Philippines and Indonesia. Together they make up for about 320,000 foreign domestic helpers, performing household tasks such as cooking, serving and child care. They are required by law to live in their employer’s residence. Since Hong Kong has the most expensive land per square meter than anywhere else in the world, these houses are usually very tiny, leaving hardly any space for privacy between employers and employees. I was able to live among these two ladies, documenting their daily lives.

Mary

about

Ricky Doornbos lives and works in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.  
He uses documentary photography as a means for doing visual research.  With an interest in local historical events, Doornbos investigates how various histories are manifested and interpreted in the broader scheme of contemporary globalization.  
In recent years Doornbos has been working on various long-term projects as ‘Mary’ (2013-2017), 'Das Rosarium' (2014-) and ‘Live for the Future, Long for the Past’ (2014-).

contact

Studio:  
Delftsestraat 33  
3013 AE Rotterdam  
+31 (0)628320171 