The series is titled *BIJVANGST* (Bycatch). Bycatch is whatever unintentionally ends up in the fishing net. For centuries, women also seemed to be the ‘bycatch’ of history: indispensable to family, village, and society, yet rarely visible in the stories that were told.
**Zandvoort, women, and fish**
With this series, photographer Ursula van de Bunte turns that perspective on its head. For *BIJVANGST*, she went in search of various women from Zandvoort, each with their own personality, background, and story, but their common denominator is: love for their hometown.
The starting point for this series is the work of Thérèse Schwartze, and in particular her *Zandvoort Woman* from 1884. Ursula was moved by Schwartze’s painting style: the dark, painterly light, the powerful portraits, and the natural presence of her models. A visual language that feels strongly related to her own way of photographing. References to Schwartze, as well as to other artists, can therefore be found in posture, light, color, and composition.
The fish forms the common thread running through the series. Fishing was once inextricably linked to Zandvoort and daily life. With the development from a fishing village to a seaside resort, that history faded further and further from view. The fish is slowly disappearing. For younger generations, it may no longer be automatically connected to the identity of Zandvoort.
It was precisely this disappearance that fascinated Van de Bunte. In various photographs, the farewell to fishing is depicted metaphorically. The fish appears, disappears, is carried, or released. It stands for change and for what a new generation leaves behind.
In this way, *BIJVANGST* brings past and present together, with the women of Zandvoort at the center.B
