Waters and More

On 1 February 1953, a severe northwesterly storm combined with a spring tide to overwhelm the Dutch coastline. More than 150 dykes in Zeeland, South Holland, and North Brabant failed, inundating vast areas of the country. A second tidal surge the following day compounded the devastation. In total, 1,836 people lost their lives. Goeree-Overflakkee was among the hardest-hit regions, with 492 victims on the island alone. Oude-Tonge suffered the highest death toll of any village, while thousands of livestock were also lost.

Growing up in Oude-Tonge, De Puy was acutely aware of the flood's lingering presence—not only in the landscape but in the silence that surrounded it. Through a series of intimate portraits, she photographs survivors of the disaster alongside those who inherited its emotional legacy through parents and grandparents. Her images reveal how collective trauma continues to shape communities across generations, long after the physical scars have faded.

Writer Maria Barnas accompanies the portraits with testimonies from people who lived through the flood and its aftermath. For many, the events remained unspoken for decades; at the time, the language to describe psychological trauma scarcely existed. Together, image and text create a space where personal histories can finally be shared.

Rather than functioning solely as a historical document, Waters speaks urgently to the present. De Puy's work reflects on the enduring human impact of climate-related catastrophe while inviting viewers to consider rising sea levels and environmental change. By bringing together portraiture and testimony, De Puy and Barnas transform stories long carried in isolation into a shared act of remembrance.

The municipality of Goeree-Overflakkee asked the artist Robin de Puy, who grew up in Oude-Tonge, to portray inhabitants of the island that experienced the disaster or grew up in the shadow of the trauma their (grand)parents survived.

Maria Barnes wrote down the stories of the people who lived through the disastrous night and the days after.  For some people it was impossible to talk about the disaster for a long time. The word ‘trauma’ didn’t exist yet.

Waters can be read as an evident signal to not look away from climate change and the rapid rising water level. De Puy and Barnas are attempting to present this tragedy, that was often carried in solitude, as something mutual.