In Leidsestraat, between the shops and the brick pavement, there are tiles of grey-blue limestone from the Belgian Ardennes, full of fossils from the time when the Ardennes had yet to be formed and much of Europe was still a sea. Around and on top of those millions of years old fossils lie, dried up pieces of chewing gum. It takes a while for chewing gum to decay, not millions of years, but still. I found that these old and new fossils together form an intriguing picture. Some gum stains themselves look like sea creatures, communicating with the prehistoric critters. Other slices of chewing gum almost coincide with the primal animals and to form a new creature.

Unfortunately, this photo collection just didn’t make it into PS Het Parool, in which sometimes my photo series are being published. They thought it was very beautiful, but unfortunately, someone else beat me to a series about street fossils (even though without the chewing gum fossils).