Searching for freedom in a world without boundaries
• – • De Stadstuin
About the speaker
Johan Visschedijk born in 1963 started his career as an advertising photographer in 1988. In the early nineties he worked as a food photographer for magazines and companies as Unilever, Ahold and Philips.
Around 2006 he started working as a car photographer as well and in 2009 he was called by Gazprom to do a big campaign in Russia. That’s where his love for the former Sovjet Union began.
Besides photography Johan likes long distance running. He competed at the Jan Knippenberg Memorial, a 100 mile run from Den Helder to Hoek van Holland. In 2020 he ran 201,5 km within 24 hours and became second at the Dutch Championship.
Additional details
During the Coved-19 pandemic many people have seen their sense of freedom becoming smaller and smaller. Transportation has been reduced to a minimum. People were forced to work from home. Restaurants and theaters were closed down.
The limitation of freedom is its border. If we had no borders freedom could be without limitation. So why is it that we love borders so much? Are we afraid of losing our possessions? Do we need a fence around our tiny garden? What about borders of countries? Why can’t we travel freely over the world? Why do we need a visa?
‘My wife is from Russia, but born in the Ukraine, in the Donbas area. She hasn’t seen her parents for nine years and what is going to happen there this year?’
Considering all these things Johan had a plan running from Amsterdam to Moscow asking people along the road about their opinion of freedom, but Covid-19 didn’t let him.
From Dacha with love
At the same time I am working on a book called “From Dacha with love” and it is all about how Russian people during summer leave their 35 square meter apartments growing vegetables in the countryside. In their dacha’s they feel completely free. Making a good grill called “Shashlik” and drinking Vodka or wine.
Location
