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The Europeans is a portrait of modern Europe. Traveling from region to region and from theme to theme in this multi-year project, photographer Rob Hornstra and writer and filmmaker Arnold van Bruggen will create a 21st century time piece on the European Heartland.




Welcome to The Plastic Sea



From tourist resort to golf course, past cultivated meadows and farmland, the plastic sea suddenly appears. You blink for a moment—white plastic glistens in the sun, reflecting light in every direction. The plastic sea is bordered by the real sea and dotted with houses, rocks, and villages. This is Europe's vegetable garden, where sunlight and a little water are used to supply the continent with food. And also with pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, bumblebees, bees, hoverflies, pest-repelling plants, and everything else modern agriculture—striving for uniform, top-grade produce—believes it needs.
Farmers speed through narrow streets in large pickups, while black Africans, standing upright on electric scooters, glide past—working here or looking for work. A lost tourist camper in search of a beach, a slogan on a wall protesting racism, an election poster for the far right. Plastic waste is all around. No one seems to notice it, pause for a moment, or try to pull it from the bushes, trees, or traffic signs. Plastic has become the symptom of a world in crisis, in the rat race to the lowest prices on supermarket shelves and the carelessness of our economic system that serves only convenience and branding—while keeping the backstage of labor and pollution carefully hidden. Plastic waste crystallizes until even the oxygen in the plastic sea seems to be replaced by microplastics. Here, you breathe plastic, bird nests are built from plastic, and downstream, fish and dolphins wash ashore with stomachs full of plastic.

Work in progress.



The mayor of a Ghanaian migrant shantytown
Plastic waste at illegal dump




Publication - due for November ‘25
Publication - due for November ‘25





“We haven't enough water, but they are still building new greenhouses. They cannot manage all the plastic waste, but we build new greenhouses. They don't want more immigrants here, but they build new greenhouses.”


Umberto Zanesi,  activist




Wordt Vervolgd







Welcome to The Black Country



An endless landscape of housing developments, industrial estates and towns that have merged into cities, criss-crossed by motorways. In every direction are hills and valleys, mounds and troughs, slopes and chasms, the origin of which is sometimes impossible to ascertain. Were they made by humans, machines or nature? This was once the home of the leaders of the industrial revolution. Socialism, social democracy and climate change were all born here. Today, the Black nCountry has been pushed to the margins of world history. When everyone else moves away, migrants see opportunities for a new beginning. The Black Country has become a haven for those fleeing the big cities and countries at war.




Wedding Party
The Black Country




Publication
Publication





De Volkskrant

“I brought over my family, my children. Everyone is here now. And why not? If the government says to me: this is your home now, then I’ll make it my home.”


Augustine





The Black Country @ Kunsthal 45
The Black Country @ Kunsthal 45







Welcome to Our Ancestral Home



A home that has been passed down from generation to generation and where a distinct language is spoken that mystifies linguists. The people who live here have almost never had their own country. But across the region, the desire for autonomy, independence and the release of political prisoners is scrawled in graffiti on countless bus shelters and walls.The region is stunningly beautiful and prosperous. Home buyers, holidaymakers and digital nomads come from far and wide to share this bounty. We have sold our country, activists lament. This unique area is slowly being incorporated into the world, despite all its traditions, despite all the resistance. But who can resist the laws of capitalism?




Shepherd Fabien
Party after the Masquerade




Publication
Publication





De Volkskrant
Media Bask

“In ten years, we’ll be gone. Everything revolves around money, and one thing I know: money always wins.”


Anonymous farmer


Pays Basque @  Station V, Bayonne
Pays Basque @ Kunsthal 45, Den Helder







Welcome to the Naval Base



The city is surrounded on three sides by the sea. To the west, waves crash against a dyke so high it obscures any view of the water. To the east rise the towering hulls and cranes of hard-working offshore vessels. Flanking them is a grey wall of navy warships, amphibious transport docks and other smaller vessels.  This city was built for the navy. When the navy grew, the city prospered; when the defence budget was cut, the city languished. But those who learn to appreciate the sea breeze stay forever, in good times and in bad.




Midshipmen
Community centre De Jutter

“We have a European passport, but we aren’t Europeans. My umbilical cord is buried there, in the former colonies overseas.”


Frank




Publication
Publication




De Volkskrant
NoordHollands Dagblad



The Europeans @  Kunsthal 45
The Europeans @ Kunsthal 45










Welcome to The Former Capital



Soldiers march in the woods. Countless soldiers. They are young. It is wet and cold. The seniors march ahead of the children, leading the way. “We’re preparing for life,” says a boy wearing a pin from the Riflemen’s Union. Marching, learning discipline, followed by a cup of soup and a speech from a respected veteran: life is not a game. Just a generation ago the former capital was part of another empire. It took 30 years for the imperial decorations to be taken off the bridge over the river, like a thief in the night. The former capital has enough experience with neighbouring superpowers and occupying forces to know these paramilitaries have to be ready at any time.



Ninth Fort
Samsonas Butchers




Publication
Publication




Kauno Diena
De Volkskrant


“When things aren’t going well for us, we try to save our culture. When things improve, we forget everything again.”


Arunas




Kaunas - The Former Capital
Kaunas- The Former Capital



 © The Europeans 2025