For ten years now, Maarten and Billie Slagboom, father and daughter, have been drawn to abandoned, dilapidated buildings like a magnet. Once inside, it seems at first glance as if time has frozen, but nothing could be further from the truth. What they see is nature, in the form of ferns, fungi, algae and mosses, reclaiming its place in an environment made entirely by human hands. In their photographs the duo records how everything we spend a lifetime trying to control is absorbed back into the greater whole, how reason and purpose surrender to the randomness and mystery of nature. The new life thus breathed into the building is as exciting as it is reassuring.
‘Decay,’ writes Manon Uphoff in her afterword to De overgave (The Surrender), the third volume in their photobook series Hier woont alleen de tijd (Only Time Lives Here; Kyosei, 2026), ‘is a tender event.’
Apart from their photographic work, Maarten Slagboom (b. 1970) works as an executive editor and edit producer for documentary series at VPRO, and Billie Slagboom (b. 2001) as a journalist whose work includes contributions to Het Financieele Dagblad. In addition to three volumes of Only Time Lives Here (Hier woont alleen de tijd in Dutch), they also co-authored the book Sleutelscènes (Key Scenes), a pilgrimage to classic film locations. An international edition of Only Time Lives Here will be released in 2027.
‘A truly beautiful book; each photograph is both a painting and a poem, and I found myself lingering over them for a long time. A soul-stirring expression’
(Tsai Ming-liang)
