From August to December 2025, singer-songwriter JP deKlerk walked, in stages, along the northern banks of the Dutch Westerschelde river, tracing its course upstream from Vlissingen to Antwerp. During his walks, he recalls, "Scraps of text, melodies, or stories drifted into my mind as if carried on the wind". From those fragments, ten songs took shape, resulting in the album 'The River Walks'. JP deKlerk asked me to provide the photography and design for this album.
I decided to go beyond the assignment and follow in the footsteps of JP deKlerk, as a photographer. I walked the same stretch of the Westerschelde from Vlissingen to Antwerp in search of the visual DNA of the land. I tried to avoid the 'picturesque and the sublime' of 19th century photographers and develop a sensitivity to structures, form and light at eye-level. I tried to capture the feel, the smells and sounds of the land and river.
The book ‘In the Footsteps of The River Walks’ is published in a limited edition of 50 and can be purchased from my shop.
Rob Marinissen, 2026
