‘Afstand houden’ (Keep distance) is the mantra of governments worldwide in order to control the coronapandemic. The measures forcing us to socially distancing ourselves for a year and a half…

‘Afstand houden’ (Keep distance) is the mantra of governments worldwide in order to control the coronapandemic. The measures forcing us to socially distancing ourselves for a year and a half have left deep traces in our society. In 2020, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam commissioned Henk Wildschut to ‘Document the Netherlands’ in order to document these traces. The photos in this book provide a picture of a charged time. How care workers and scientists did their work behind the scenes, the public space took on a different appearance and human contact was determined by protection, isolation and removal. The worries and impatience on the one hand and the resigned gloom on the other may not be immediately visible, but everyone who browses the book will remember those mixed feelings. In this way, Wildschut as a photographer has tried to bridge the distance created.