Dagmar Haggenburg

Why do people keep plants in their houses? Why does a man plant 2,000 hairs in the back of his head to let them grow there? Why is a tree pruned in a particular shape more appreciated than weeds? Who determines that waterfalls are special? These are a few of the questions that are always on my mind. The driving force behind my work is my unlimited amazement about the desire of the human species to control its surroundings. Or, in other words: the current zeitgeist that adjustment is improvement. In a country such as The Netherlands there is almost nothing that has not been shaped by people. I wonder what's wrong with the things that are natural, that we want to change them over and over again. Man's grip on the world does not seem to know any boundaries and even extends to the natural world, the world of other living beings.

This is something that amazes me: we appreciate nature because it is something outside of us, something mystical. It is for good reason that we surround ourselves with plants, visit nature reserves, and hike into the woods. "Purely natural" or untouched nature is still the most appreciated and yet we intervene for various reasons. The complex and contradictory relationship between man and nature is my field of work. On one hand, there is that love for the natural, on the other hand, the urge of creating. As a photographer I constantly search for big and small phenomena in which I see this friction. In addition, I try to find out the reason for the existence of the phenomenon. It is a great quest for the ideas and visions we apparently hold, it is our (conscious or unconscious) relationship with nature. Nature, which without man would not exist in its current form. This is my method of trying to get a grip on the question of what nature actually still is, in this era in which man is in charge, in a country where nothing is left to chance. www.dagmarhaggenburg.nl