Every year, around 3.5 billion kilos of fruit and vegetables are grown in the vast greenhouse area along the Almería coast in southern Spain. Thousands of trucks transport this produce to markets across Europe, allowing us to enjoy fresh vegetables all year round. Photographer Rob Hornstra and writer Arnold van Bruggen wanted to discover what life is like behind Europe’s largest greenhouse complex, and who the people are who live and work there. The result of their work, part of a larger project simply titled The Europeans, is now on display at Kunsthal Rotterdam, under the title “Plastic Sea, Perfect Storm”. Beyond the quality of the photographs themselves, it is the stories behind them that I found truly moving. Stories of hardship, suffering and modern slavery. Thousands of migrants without legal residency status are forced to work and live in appalling conditions to produce the food that ends up on our European markets. It is a deeply disturbing reality, and certainly nothing to be proud of. For once, I let the pictures speak for themselves.
