More than 450 photos from the meadow of susanne and herman de vries in Eschenau, Germany. An overview of the development of this meadow from 1986 to spring 2013.

Edition of 750 copies and a special edition of 34 + 2 copies, signed and numbered with two editions with dried leaves from the meadow. The book will be published in autumn 2013 and the launch will be at the exhibition 'herman de vries – books and editions' at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.

[herman de vries' photoproject exposition complète] was intended to awaken consciousness to the undeniable truth that anything and everything, here and everywhere, is interesting enough to warrant attention. de vries demonstrates this in practice in the series of photoworks entitled the seeings of my beings (begun in 1973 and sporadically returned to over the next three years), each one itself consisting of a random sample of such 'seeings'. In this respect the seeings of my beings are like the 'visual chances' taken in Luang-Prabang. For it was by chance and change that de vries found himself in that particular Laotian town, and anywhere could have served as well for the purposes of the work, which is in itself simply exemplary. Similarly, the locations chosen for his series of seeings - Eschenau, Senegal, Morocco, Kathmandu - have in themselves no special significance. Wherever de vries found himself he might make such works.

The photographs that make up the various series are, in terms of function, exactly opposite to holiday snapshots, whose deliberate purpose is the capturing of personally significant moments, persons and objects, just as they also differ from those photographs taken of picturesque views, or of natural or cultural topographies, or of objects, buildings, streets etc. of historical, artistic or personal interest. What is more, they have no artistic quality, are in no way posed or composed. As photographs having no burden of emotive or informational intent they are categorically distinct, that is to say, from almost any common, culturally sanctioned or useful kind of photography.

The makings of the series of the seeings of my beings were governed by strict protocols that ensured randomness and purposefully eliminated any ascription of special personal significance to any particular moment on a journey or any particular subject for the camera. A typical protocol would determine the date and the time of the taking of a photograph (the camera was often held and operated by susanne). At a specified moment the first photograph - of herman, his being at that precise moment - would be taken. Handed the camera, he would then take the second photograph, of what was in front of his eyes - his seeing - at that moment [source: Mel Gooding, herman de vries : chance and change (London 2006) 86-90].