Rob Hornstra

In 2019, Hornstra and Van Bruggen announced the start of another long-term project: The Europeans, inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson's 1955 book The Europeans and prompted by the recent rise of voters and regimes dissatisfied with the European ideal.

Man Next Door. Utrecht: self-published, 2017. Edition of 800 copies. Photographic portrait of a neighbour friend, with some captions.

The Secret History of Khava Gaisanova: And the North Caucasus. N.p.: The Sochi Project, 2013. (in English) Photography by Hornstra, text by Arnold van Bruggen. The story of one resident of Chermen, North Ossetia.

De Geheime Geschiedenis van Khava Gaisanova. N.p.: The Sochi Project, 2013. (in Dutch) Dutch-language edition of the above.

Empty Land Promised Land Forbidden Land. 2nd edition. N.p.: The Sochi Project, 2012. Smaller format than the original, and updated.

Life Here is Serious. Sketchbook Series. N.p.: The Sochi Project, [2012]. (in English) Photography by Hornstra, text by Arnold van Bruggen. Photographs of young wrestlers in Dagestan.

Kiev. Sketchbook Series. N.p.: The Sochi Project, [2012]. (in English) Photography and short text by Hornstra. Photographs of Sochi and its area, taken with a Kiev 6S camera.

Safety First. Sketchbook Series. N.p.: The Sochi Project, [2011]. (in English) Photography by Hornstra, text by Arnold van Bruggen. Photographs of Grozny, damaged by an X-ray scanner in Grozny.

Sochi Singers. N.p.: The Sochi Project, 2011. (in English) Photography by Hornstra, text by Arnold van Bruggen. Singers performing chansons/popsa in the restaurants of Sochi and nearby resorts.

Hornstra and Van Bruggen have also created more democratic exhibitions, made entirely of newsprint, that can be shown on the walls of small galleries with no budget for framed prints or video installations: On the Other Side of the Mountains (2010), two copies of which create an exhibition; Paris Photo Newsprint Exhibition (2012), with thirty photographs; and three versions of Billboard Sochi Singers, each containing the sheets to assemble either of two posters.

Empty Land Promised Land Forbidden Land. N.p.: The Sochi Project, 2010. (in English) Photography by Hornstra, text by Arnold van Bruggen. This 271-page book is the second in the series of annual publications of the Sochi Project. A portrait of Abkhazia, and of Abkhazians and Georgians exiled from Abkhazia. The book was listed among Photo-Eye's best photobooks for 2010 and was nominated for the 2011 Dutch Doc award.

On the Other Side of the Mountains. N.p.: The Sochi Project, 2010. (in English) Photography by Hornstra, text by Arnold van Bruggen. A photograph album on newsprint (tabloid format) about the village of Krasny Vostok, in Karachay–Cherkessia. On p. 63 appear instructions on how to arrange pp. 3–62 of two copies into an exhibition, as was done during the 2010 European Month of Photography. Hornstra and Van Bruggen chose Krasny Vostok, on the other side of the mountains from Sochi, because nothing unusual happens there.

Together with the writer and filmmaker Arnold van Bruggen, in 2009 Hornstra started the Sochi Project, which over five years would document the area of Sochi (Krasnodar Krai, Russia) and the changes to it during the preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Hornstra and Van Bruggen express surprise that the site chosen for such a large winter event would be one so close to politically volatile areas such as Abkhazia and one that by Russian standards has exceptionally mild winters. Under the slogan slow journalism, the pair request donations from the public for the crowdfunding of a project whose timescale is impossible for the mass media. The stories Hornstra and Van Bruggen collected as part of the project have appeared in newspapers, photobooks and online over the course of the five-year period. The project culminated in the retrospective book An Atlas of War and Tourism in the Caucasus published by Aperture in 2013, and in 2014 an exhibition that toured Europe, America and Canada.

101 Billionaires, 2nd edition. Utrecht: Borotov Photography, 2009. (in English) A cheaper edition (no gatefolds) with slightly updated text, whose publication was prompted by the news that the number of billionaires had plummeted to 49. Referred to by Hornstra and in reviews and notices as the 2009 Crisis Edition.

Sanatorium. N.p.: The Sochi Project, 2009. Photography by Hornstra, text by Arnold van Bruggen. The first of a series of annual publications from the Sochi Project, this booklet is about Sanatorium Metallurg at Sochi, which, like the other Soviet-era sanatoria in the area, appeared likely to be demolished and replaced with an expensive hotel in time for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Sanatorium won the "Photographic Book" category of the New York Photo Awards in 2010.

101 Billionaires. Utrecht: Borotov Photography, 2008. With text by Hans Loos and Arnold van Bruggen. (in English) The title derives from the assertion in the Russian magazine Finans that Russia then had 101 (US dollar) billionaires. However, the book depicts not these Russians but rather those who were "forgotten by capitalism". The book was nominated for the New York Photo Awards 2009 and listed among Photo-Eye's best ten photobooks for 2008.

In 2006, together with the art historian Femke Lutgerink, Hornstra started work on Fotodok, an Utrecht-based organization that arranges exhibitions and other events for documentary photography. Itself inspired by Fotohof in Salzburg, Fotodok hopes eventually to create an exhibition space for documentary photography in Utrecht. Fotodok was launched in 2008; Hornstra stepped down as creative director in September 2009.

Changing Faces: Work 1. Photography by Stein and Issa, Orri, Thomas Neumann, Renja Leino, Arturas Valiauga, and Hornstra. Edited by Agnes Matthias. Essen: Museum Volkwang, 2006; Steidl, 2006. ISBN 3-86521-211-5.

Roots of the Rúntur. Rit Thjódhminjasafns Íslands, 10. Reykjavík: Thjódhminjasafn Íslands, 2006. Photography by Hornstra, text by Hornstra and Ingvar Högni Ragnarsson. (in English and Dutch) About what were previously fishing communities in Iceland. (Rúntur, literally "round tour", and elsewhere a pub crawl or a drive around a circular course or even repeatedly around a single block, here means a repeated drive around the perimeter road of a village.)

Communism and Cowgirls. Self-published, 2004. On the new, post-Soviet generation of Russians.

Hornstra studied Social and Legal Services at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences from 1994 to 1998; for a year from summer 1996, he interned and then worked as a probation officer. From September 1998, he worked for over eight years as a host and bartender at Muziekcentrum Vredenburg in Utrecht. From 1999 to 2004, he studied photographic design at Utrecht School of the Arts.

Rob Hornstra (born 14 March 1975, in Borne, Overijssel) is a Dutch photographer and self-publisher of documentary work, particularly of areas of the former Soviet Union.