Tjeu Teeuwen et al., In search of the kingfisher, card in memory of Hans Waanders with text by Thomas A Clark, photograph by Peter Foolen.

Bas Jan Ader's conceptual take on the romantic quest and, particularly, his use of the photographic record is adumbrated in a photograph of Waanders, taken in 1994 by Peter Foolen. The black and white photograph shows Waanders casually dressed and shading his eyes as he looks out across the Geul river, a tribrutary of the larger River Maas, in the Geul valley of Limburg. As with Ader's photographs in In search of the Miraculous (One Night in Los Angeles), Foolen's image might seem a relatively straightforward representation of the romantic artist in the throes of his search. However, this photograph in fact articulates a more nuanced relationship between Waanders and the object of his "quest" 

Foolen's photograph, has been used to accompany Thomas A Clark's laconic tribute to Waanders that was printed as a postcard by the October Foundation in 2001 shortly after Waanders' death. Like Foolen's photograph, Clark memorialises Waanders' seminal encounter with the kingfisher but also acknowledges the indelible impressions that Waander himself made during his own brief life (bron: Ross Hair, Brilliant Absence, 2019).

In Memory of Hans Waanders (4 January 1951 – 24 June 2001)

"Last week it was 8 years ago Hans Waanders died. Many years after Hans planted perches – for kingfishers to sit on – along a stream near Deuchar Mill in Yarrow, Scotland, this bird was spotted in this place. Helen Douglas sent me today these photographs of the kingfisher visiting last week the recently restored Deuchar Mill Pond at her house in Yarrow"(Peter Foolen).

"...the amazing thing is I have never seen a kingfisher here in all the 34 years. So it was quite wonderful to see this beautiful bird, hovering and dipping and flitting from tree to tree around the pond which has brought liquidity to the mill. For over 20 minutes. I felt the pond blessed..." (Helen Douglas to PF, 2 July 2009).