In 2022 and 2023, I set out across the Belgian countryside with an old Massey Ferguson tractor and a livestock trailer converted into a photo studio. It was the journey I had dreamt of for years, growing up in the Westhoek. A return to the world I left behind two decades ago. An attempt to understand what is really happening in this much-discussed yet little-known rural landscape. After 2,500 kilometers, countless nights in village barns, and more than a hundred interviews and photo sessions, I finally shared my story at the turn of 2023–2024: the exhibition 'Buitenmensen – De stem van het platteland' at the Sint-Pietersabdij in Ghent.
Watch the aftermovie of Buitenmensen made by No Angry Men.
Pictures (c) Christophe Vander Eecken
