Seven years ago I was in contact with a model living in the north of The Netherlands. I wanted to photograph her on and next to the huge dolmen stones which are stapled there.

The dolmen (‘hunebed’ in Dutch) stones are so big and heavy that people used to believe they had been built by giants. Nowadays we know better. Some 3000 years BCE, members of the Funnelbeaker Culture built these gigantic structures to bury their dead. Each passage grave is a tomb made from enormous, solid stones. The stones were left behind after the penultimate ice age and weigh up to 40 tons each.

Because of the unpredictable climate of The Netherlands for a long time it was difficult to make this photography session happen, and we had to cancel our plans many times.

We now finally had a longer period of good weather. While the model from years ago was unavailable, I was fortunate to take model Elle with me to Drouwenerveld in the province of Drenthe. We did two sessions after one each other, one nude and one body-painting.

You will find the results this work, photos and a video accompanied by the music of Handel, here: Dolmen woman nudes, body-paintings and portraits.