Mensenstroom, Memories of the Dodewaard nuclear power plant 1969-1997 (Numbered, edt of 1000)

Bart Sorgedrager
Mensenstroom, Memories of the Dodewaard nuclear power plant 1969-1997 (Numbered, edt of 1000)

Photographs: Bart Sorgedrager

Text: Wim Wennekes

Publisher: NV Joint Nuclear Power Plant Netherlands

Year: 1997

Price: 750 €

Comments: Spiral-bound hardcover in slipcase, 24.7 x 25.8 cm. Numbered edition of 1000. In very good conditon other than traces of use on the slipcase. Included in « The Photobook: A History, Volume II » by Parr & Badger, p. 202 and in Factory Photo-books: The Self-representation of the Factory in Photographic Publications (Nai010 Publishers, 2023) by Bart Sorgedrager. RARE

The book “Mensenstroom” has a double meaning: Mens means “human being” and Stroom means “stream” or “electricity,” so the resulting meaning is “Stream of people.” This title was given because it really was a real stream of people; in fact all, all the people who worked at this nuclear power station were photographed. The subtitle is: “In memory of the nuclear power station in Dodewaard.” The numbers on the cover count down from 58 to 00: from 58 megawatts to 00 megawatts, the moment the factory was shut down. The book starts with 58, the megawatts the factory was producing. Then there is the movement from outside to inside to outside. Starting with a panoramic overview, then a poem by the manager, expressing his feelings the moment the factory was shut down, and a foreword written by Wim Wennekes. Then my “pass,” the guards, dogs, fences with “Nato wire,” the main entrance (with a bicycle pump: where in the world outside of Holland would you find a doormen with a pump?). We then added a list of abbreviations from the factory’s safety report; drawings and schematics of the factory; historical “highlights”; an organogram (graphic hierarchical drawing); a list of all the employees; my “pass” again, an overview, the number 00, and finally, a computer list with the time registration I was in the factory. (Four seconds short of 200 hours). All of the photographs are made with a 4 X 5 camera using color negative film.