Justus de Rode

Justus de Rode [b. 1997, Netherlands] is a visual artist based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. While working across various media, his practice is rooted in photography. With an academic background in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (BSc) and Film & Photographic Studies (MA), his practise reflects a research-driven and cross-disciplinary approach. Growing up in a painter’s family, by contrast, fostered a visual sensibility that resonates in the introspective and pictorial qualities of his work. De Rode describes his work as an ongoing fight against the photographic, questioning fundamental properties of the medium while oscillating between analysis and affect. This tension between reason and emotion lies at the core of his artistic inquiry, often metaphorically reflected in subjects drawn from ecology, geology, natural history, and nature itself.

Views of Nature is a series in which Justus De Rode revisits Alexander von Humboldt’s influential 19th-century writings to explore how we perceive the natural world. Drawing on Humboldt’s blend of scientific observation and Romantic imagination, De Rode looks at the tension between rational analysis and emotional experience. Using cyanotypes toned with natural tannins, he creates images that feel both earthly and quietly mystical. The project ultimately reflects on Humboldt’s call for sensitivity and suggests that a renewed balance of reason and feeling might help counter modern alienation…. READ MORE