„I think the earth is a great gift” – interview with Stephan Horch, a rubbish-collecting-kayaking-photographer

Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? We met Stephan Horch while hitchhiking throught Germany. Turned out, he was a photographer and a kayaker – plus a very concious environmental activist. Activist in terms of bringing together raising the awareness of waterpollution with the art of photography. At the time we met him, he was about to go on a huge kayak-tour to collect rubbish from the rivers and make photos of them. After the tour we asked him about how he came to the idea of this project, how it went and what the results were.

DailyNewsHungary: How did the idea of this project come to your mind? Did you get angry about the pollution of the Earth in general, or was there a more personal story?
Stephan: I started kayaking three and a half years ago. Gaining my first experience in the water I saw an old football swimming along the Rhine. I piked it up and we played with it after our tour. The football was already pretty damaged so I had to throw it away afterwards. On the next training it was a plastic bottle that I found and that we played with, and then a plastic bag. That was when I started collecting the rubbish from the river.
After I bought myself a kayak, I paddled a few times a week on the Mosel (a big river next to my front door). I realized that there is quite a lot of waste in the river and that the pollution varies from day to day, also some parts are more polluted than others. As a photographer you start thinking about using your skills to make the people aware of the problem. So I started taking pictures of the rubbish in the nature, like a documentary. But it didn’t reach the aim – getting the peoples’ attention for the problem. But as I’m a photographer and installation artist I had more in mind – art. It quickly became clear that if I want to arouse the interest of people, I had to bring it into another context. So I made art out of it to illuminate the subject in another light, and it worked!

DailyNewsHungary: What were the next steps after you decided to do this project?
Stephan: Normally I paddle two times a week and every time I collect half a bag of rubbish – or even more. There are also some hotspots I’m going to sometimes in purpose to clean them completely. Most of the time I end up with 2-3 bags of waste. It’s unbelievable when you see the amount of the rubbish. Once I started to arrange it and took a picture.

DailyNewsHungary: What did the people you talked about this to tell you – did they support you? Was there anyone, who tried to convience you not to make the CleanWaterProject?
Stephan: At the beginning only my friends were interested, but all of a sudden it changed: more and more people started to be interested in my plan, and I had a lot of conversations about the problem. Turns out, the biggest problem is that we still don’t pay enough attention for the pollution of the waters.

DailyNewsHungary: Can you give me please a brief description about how your idea came true?
Stephan: Do you mean my kayak tour in Rhine and Mosel from Winningen to the North Sea?
If so, the idea was born quickly. I wanted to show people that the rubbish floats from my front door into the sea and make them aware of this problem.
I paddled the whole way to make it more transparent and tangible for them. The pictures are on tour now. We were able to manage the project through a crowdfunding platform and now you can see the photos in a touring exhibition along the route up to the Netherlands and the sea. Neuwied – Köln – Duisburg – Ouddorp and back to Koblenz.

DailyNewsHungary: What were the experiences you had and didn’t expect, during the trip?
Stephan: I wasn’t able to collect all the rubbish, otherwise I would still be paddling for two years… But no matter were I stopped, what I found was waste, waste and even more waste, everywhere. It’s a shame that the mankind treats nature so badly. I think the earth is a great gift and most of us still don’t understand that it is our duty to protect it. The whole tour was planned to be finished in 14 days. But in the second week the weather conditions changed and got extreme. The wind was really strong, blowing from the front and from the side, with a speed of 70 km/h. That was very intense, because I could just paddle 10 to 15 km per 5 hours, which is nothing. If the weather had not changed after two days (first it was supposed to become worse) I would not have reached my destination, the North Sea. At that time I was very frustrated and whacked. But my fans supported me via mails, text messages and social media. And so I managed not to give up and fight for clean rivers and oceans.

DailyNewsHungary: What do you think the impact/result is?
Stephan: Oh, well, that’s a good question. Right now the exhibition touches the people and them act on the problem. They realize the mass of waste surrounding them, they start talking about it with other people and some even start collecting waste on their own.
I receive mails and pictures from all over Germany, where people started to collect rubbish because of the Projectcleanriverproject.de. That motivates me a lot and we already planned more campaigns for the next year. The exhibition is supposed to travel further to reach even more people and inform them about the whole issue.

DailyNewsHungary: Are you planning on coming to Hungary, too?
Stephan: Yes. I would love to paddle through Hungary, collect some waste, make art out of it and present it in an exhibition. I’ve been in Hungary when I was a child and I have a really nice remembrance of this country.

by Noemi Gangel

Source: Daily News Hungary