I have visited the Papiermolen (windmill) de Schoolmeester in Westzaan, Holland. Together with other students we got an assignment to make a report on how paper is made in this windmill.
Normally, paper is made from wood. In the old days paper was made from cotton. De Schoolmeester is the oldest (still operating) windmill in the world specialised in making paper from cotton. The facility consists of a windmill and a wooden shed of about 60 meters long.
First the cotton is shred to pieces by hand.
The pieces are put into special containers with water. With wind power the cotton pieces are further broken down into pulp. The pulp is then used to make all sorts of paper. The shed is used to dry the paper.
Taking photos in the windmill proved to be a real challenge. The end result had to be in black and white (I am used to colour photography). During the tour the miller stood most of the time in front of windows, so almost all photos had to be taken in a backlit situation. At first I used Av (Aperture priority) and used exposure compensation to dial in some extra exposure. This soon became too tedious, so I used manual exposure. Exposure was set so you could still see some details in the shadows. The histogram was used to monitor that not too much of the photo was over exposed.
Since this was the first time for me to photograph in black and white I experimented with various geometric shapes.
I especially liked to photograph the dust in the windmill.
The entire reportage can be seen here.
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