PORTFOLIO - NAOMI KOK
For her graduation project Der Himmel Auf Erden, photographer Naomi Kok (b. 1995) took a deep dive into her family's personal history to examine the mechanisms of transgenerational trauma, and the long-lasting repercussions of repressing a family secret long deemed too shameful to confront. In the form of an intimate audiovisual experience, Kok's project combines ample archival material with family portraiture, documentary photography and recorded conversations, to paint a compelling picture of a family coming to terms with the legacy of a decades long burden.
On Boxing Day of 1952, notorious Dutch war criminal Herbertus Bikker — then known by many as the "Butcher of Ommen" — escaped from a Breda prison, crossing the border into Germany to escape life imprisonment. Protected by his German nationality, which he attained as a former member of the Waffen-SS, as well as Germany's refusal to extradite nationals, Bikker was largely saved from repercussions for his actions during World War II. The family that he left behind in the Netherlands, however, was not granted that same "luxury" — for, hounded by journalists and media outlets, discriminated against by fellow citizens and haunted by feelings of transferred shame, Bikker's family had little choice but to live their lives in fear of reprobation. Three generations later, his descendants — Kok included — are still coming to terms with not only his problematic and difficult legacy, but the consequences of decades of silence.
Commenting on the experiences of her grandmother, who now carries the brunt of this trauma, Kok wrote, "The weeks around Liberation Day and in the periods when his trials were being broadcast on television, she did not go outside either, still out of that fear of journalists and confrontation. She hid by closing the curtains." Visualizing these outwardly small gestures of concealment and shame in her photographs, Kok combines these atmospheric photographs with shadowy, restrained portraiture that emphasizes the emotional impact of her family's transgenerational trauma on their self-perception.The addition of audio excerpts of conversations with her grandmother, grandfather, mother and herself, adds further depth to Kok's multi-layered story, and allows space for the differing perceptions and experiences of each family member.