Margaret Lansink is a Dutch photographer who lives in a small village near Amsterdam. She was one of a very large family and uses her camera to connect with her emotions. She, according to her artist’s statement, often feels like a spectator of a play. Her images are intuitive, blurred and misty, full of emotion. Her new book Borders of Nothingness – On the Mend grew out of her estrangement from her daughter and subsequent reconnection (although you do not learn whether or not it was/is a success). In the introduction it says ‘In the infinite flow of everything, people come and go in our lives. While the presence of some can be so subtle that we hardly register when it begins or ends, with others its far clearer: they enter, or leave, with a bang’ (Lansink, 2020). In her interview for Leica, Lansink says, ‘Borders of nothingness is my way of telling people that life is not always what you expect from it’ (Klink, 2018).

The book is small, 14 x 18.5 cm and tactile. The original edition of 50 copies was hand bound in a Japanese style, the edition I have is still beautiful, although without the gold leaf collage of the original. The images are black and white, silver and gold and their lack of clarity makes one dream of what has happened and what might be. They are subtle, haunting, and I have found myself going back over and over to read slightly different stories.

I bought this for myself to break the miseries of isolation. It was well worth the price.

Lansink’s website shows more of the images and is worth a look both for this and her earlier series which are photographed in a similar style.