This series captures not just the spectacle of reenactment, but the intimacy within it. The stolen glances, the absorbed gestures, the quiet presence of craft. A woman knits beneath the trees. Two friends share apples on a bench. A prisoner reaches through the bars of a wooden cage. These aren’t performances; they’re moments suspended in time.

In July 2025, I immersed myself in the Leidse Rembrandtdagen, where the streets of Leiden’s Pieters and Academiewijk transformed into a living painting. For two days, hundreds of volunteers revived the spirit of the 1600s, dressed in hand-sewn garments, surrounded by historical props, spinning wool, selling vegetables, and performing fragments of a forgotten daily life.

“Echoes of the 1600s” is a visual tribute to the humanity behind the history: the textures, the labour, the humour, and the care. Every frame invites the viewer not only to observe, but to feel the living thread between past and present.

A young boy and an older woman, both dressed in historical clothing, are talking in a street market with laundry hanging on a clothesline.
Two women dressed in historic yellow and white costumes with bonnets, holding baskets of bread and cheese, standing outdoors on a sidewalk in front of a building with large windows.
A man in a blue head scarf demonstrating weaving on a wooden loom surrounded by a crowd of people at an outdoor market or festival.
A person spinning wool into yarn using a traditional spinning wheel in a cozy indoor setting.
An elderly man with glasses, a mustache, and a red cap, dressed in historical clothing, sitting with hands clasped on a guitar, looking to the side.
Two women in historical costumes are inside a wooden cart with a cage, appearing distressed; one is leaning on the cage, and the other is crawling out, surrounded by straw, with people in modern clothing in the background.
A woman dressed in historical clothing, including a white head covering and red vest, knitting with four needles outdoors in a green setting.
Woman dressed in traditional European folk attire, holding a feather duster, against a dark background.
A man with a white mustache and beard wearing a yellow felt hat, round glasses, and a gray outfit. He has a backpack with wooden sticks or tools on his back, and a crowd is visible in the background.
Two elderly women dressed in historical clothing sitting outdoors, holding partially eaten apples, engaged in conversation.
Two women dressed in historical clothing working at a vegetable stand at an outdoor market.
Four people dressed in historical clothing sitting on a bench outside a brick building.