An Incomplete History
An Incomplete History is a reflection of what’s left after erosion has hit a life. Soil is the earth’s fragile skin that anchors all life. When this soil slips away, a life crumbles, a family falls apart and memories start to fade.
Ananda uses photography to reconnect with her surroundings and to find her bearings. Her previous series, Martin, were an attempt to reconnect with her half-brother, whom she hadn’t seen for ten years. This new work, An Incomplete History, explores her feelings of absence after her father, whom she had not seen for a long time, died. Having only one object, a fossil, to remember him by, she set out to lay bare the remains after erosion affected a family in Tanzania.
At a site of historical and archeological importance, she looked through a magnifying glass into what it means to be connected to land and family. Crafted as a love story, the book shows the cruel effects of erosion on belonging and family life, knowing that life goes on.
An Incomplete History is available from Schilt publishing and a special edition from anincompletehistory.tumblr.com/
Ananda van der Pluijm
Ananda van der Pluijm (b. 1980) is a Dutch photographer / visual artist based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Her graduation project for the Amsterdam Photo Academy, Martin , won 3rd Prize Observed Portraits Stories at World Press Photo 2013 and was selected as a finalist for the Getty Portrait Prize. She also holds a MA in Cultural Studies.
Ananda started photography in 2009 as a means to make contact with her surroundings, during the rehabilitation of Guillain-Barré, an autoimmune disease. Her experiences inspired her to focus on human relationships, loneliness and creating new connections with photography. Her work is an ongoing research on how the medium can be used to connect; conceptually, thematically and technically. From the beginning, she has been creating personal and intimate stories with sensitivity, compassion and respect. Ananda is currently working on several stories within her theme, and continues to shoot the stories that touch her.
Besides producing independent projects, she’s also an independent editor and works as a documentary and editorial photographer for several clients: Bild am Sonntag, Doctors without Borders, CUAMM Doctors with Africa, IKON, Footlocker/Lacoste.