"To search, to disclose and to write with light is what Misha de
Ridder does in his landscape photos and videos. He does not seek
the comfort zone of the beautiful and picturesque, but of the
sublime. It is a quest for entering into a confrontation with
nature as a given larger than ourselves, to re-visualize a
greatness that is both realistic but also inconceivable. Landscape
is a paradox: how can we hold as an image what perhaps can't be
photographed, the change of light for example, or the tactility of
the landscape. The greatness lifts us beyond borders we are not
always able to comprehend, not mentally, nor in feeling. Landscape
is not only seen, but is a multi-sensory experience with knowledge
and craft."
Professor Erik A. de Jong, opening speech 'Solstice' FOAM,
2011
"As an artist, De Ridder makes images that could easily become
saccharine calendar art or empty exercises in sublime kitsch.
Arctic sunsets, verdant dunes and dense forests have all been De
Ridder's subjects, but he has always succeeded in pushing them to a
new level and forced us to look again - either through inventive
design in the case of Wilderness or editorial restraint and focus,
as in the case of Dune. In some ways, De Ridder's works are so
forcefully anachronistic that they are contemporary. It takes a
brave and talented soul to tackle the sublime landscape and succeed
like De Ridder."
Adam Bell, PhotoEye Magazine, 2011
Misha de Ridder (1971, Alkmaar, The Netherlands) lives in
Amsterdam, The Netherlands. De Ridder exhibited at Juliètte Jongma
Gallery, Layr Wuestenhagen Contemporary, PhotoEspaña, the Triennial
of Photography Hamburg, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, FOAM, The
Museum of the City of New York.
Photobooks by Misha de Ridder: Sightseeing (2000), Uitgeverij De
Balie, Wilderness (2003), Artimo, Dune (2011), Lay Flat, Abendsonne
(2011), Schaden.com.