Times are changing at breakneck speed and the profession of the small livestock farmer - often the owner of a farm that has been passed down from father to son for generations - is under great pressure. Many farmers are being forced out of business. With that, a profession that was once so taken for granted in the Netherlands, and even strongly defined the image of the Netherlands, is disappearing.
Over the past two years, photographer Johan Witteman has been intensively engaged in photographing what he himself describes as striking livestock farmers. These are not composed photographs, nothing is staged, and everything in the image is as natural as possible.
In the book 'Veeboeren' the portraits by Johan are inseparable from the stories written by Noor Hellmann. This is what Johan has had in mind all along: a combination of beautiful portraits and stories, giving a true picture of a slowly disappearing profession.
