Schiphol Haarlemmermeer

Briefly everything comes to a halt in this bird’s nest in the middle of the Haarlem polder. It’s here the big birds come to forage. Before flying on to faraway places they fill their bellies with passengers, cases and kerosene. The pause lasts exactly one sixtieth of a second, the shutter speed of the photographer. Because here everything is always in perpetual motion. Only in the dead of night does time seem to slow down a little. This is no friendly rendezvous where travellers can relax and wind down, but an exercise in efficiency. With lost luggage as every passenger’s nightmare. And that’s why we see this minutely directed ballet, of which the choreography leave very little room for improvisation. The birds resign themselves to their fate, manoeuvring precisely within the white lines.