Rob Hornstra

Rob Hornstra (born 14 March 1975, in Borne, Overijssel) is a Dutch photographer and self-publisher of documentary work, particularly of areas of the former Soviet Union.

Hornstra studied Social and Legal Services at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences from 1994 to 1998; for a year from summer 1996, he interned and then worked as a probation officer. From September 1998, he worked for over eight years as a host and bartender at Muziekcentrum Vredenburg in Utrecht. From 1999 to 2004, he studied photographic design at Utrecht School of the Arts.

For his graduation project he spent one month in Russia photographing the lives of the first generation of young people growing up after the fall of communism. In the same year that he graduated he published this series as his first book, Communism and Cowgirls.

Since graduation Hornstra has combined editorial work for newspapers and magazines with more personal, longer-term documentary work in the Netherlands, Iceland, and the former Soviet Union. Hornstra considers himself a maker of photographic documentaries rather than a photographer; when not photographing for a particular purpose, he does not carry a camera. Further, he sees books as more important than exhibitions, and regards his own editing, publication and marketing of books of his photography as an important part of his work.

Hornstra prefers to work with film, in medium format or large format:

[It] takes me quite a bit of time to set up my Mamiya medium-format camera and Horseman large-format camera. And that allows me to shoot more spontaneous pictures. Yes, it sounds contradictory. But snapshots aren't always so spontaneous by any means. When people have to pose for a long time, they eventually relax. Then you can really take nice pictures of them.

...
Wikipedia