hoe zij ze spelen is a photo series about the pigeon racing culture in the Campine region in Flanders, Belgium. .

as a daughter and grand-daughter of pigeon keepers i grew up in the midst of it. while growing up i had conflicting feelings around the pigeons and the atmosphere accompanying them ; the pigeons more often than not came first – our familylife evolved around my 300-ish flying brothers and sisters.

after living abroad for some years and being able to look at this atypical world from a distance, a new form of curiosity emerged and together with colleague photographer and friend we dove right into the pigeon racing during the summer of 2014.

hoe zij ze spelen is a merged testimony of two photographers documenting the pigeons, the objects, the people and the invisible tissue that holds the community together.