Greetings from a flat country: Stephanie Luescher celebrates everyday life, with food

Greetings from a flat country is a declaration of love to the nostalgia of a country left behind, Switzerland, and the celebration of another discovered country, the Netherlands. In this photo series, Swiss artist Stephanie Luescher captures elements of Dutch cuisine, and creates new memories.

Sitting in her Dutch apartment, she stares at the cards that cover her dining table at every meal. Then the idea comes to her. “As an answer to the lush slopes on the [swiss] postcards sent by my parents, I decided to create my own alpinist postcards from the low lands. Because where the Netherlands has no scenery at high altitude, it does have many typical foods only the Dutch seem to enjoy, and no one else.”

The most everyday foods of the Netherlands turn into tiny folkloric mountains, memories of landforms that don’t exist in real life. Visgraat (a composition of smoked herring), whose fish strips rise more than 24.3 cm high, becomes a slippery peak. Edam (a mild-flavored cheese from the Netherlands) becomes a 25.9 cm climbing peak.

“Nothing monumental or grandiose, just the simplest reflection of my new culture, food.” It is the everyday simplicity of these new foods that inspires the photographer.