He spent 50 days on a deserted island. Then he found a message in a bottle.

Jasper Doest spent nearly two months photographing the Netherlands’ Rottumeroog, where visitors are usually prohibited and he found a new sense of freedom.

Photography · By Catherine Zuckerman · Photographs by Jasper Doest · Published December 5, 2023 · 2 min read · January 2024 Issue

Topics: Islands, Animal Migration, Philosophy, Birds, Landscape Photography, Premium, Feature, Photography, Animals, Magazine

The island of Rottumeroog in the Netherlands is an uninhabited wilderness heavily protected by European nature laws. In 2012 and 2013, I traveled there back and forth multiple times for an assignment, spending a total of 50 days and nights—an amazing opportunity, as visitors were usually prohibited. For much of my time there, I was alone. My job was to take pictures to help others learn about this place. But about two-thirds of the way through, a lesson emerged. It came by way of a message in a bottle, tossed from the sea. (Learn how to take wildlife photos from Doest.)

I grew up near the Dutch coast, and Rottumeroog’s flat, open setting was familiar to me. I tried to avoid imposing my own narrative on the island, which has a sand foundation and is gradually drifting to the southeast, guided by the current. So I walked its perimeter daily, training myself to listen and watch for small changes in this landscape that was so simple, you could draw it with just a few lines. (Oldest Message in Bottle: Behind History's Famous Floating Notes) One of my favorite spots to explore was along the shore where an old building once stood. All that remained were some half-buried bricks, among which shells and ocean debris collected. One day I noticed a bottle in the rubble unlike others I’d previously found—this one’s cap was screwed on. I opened it and discovered a handwritten note inside. In English, it said: “My name is Meike and I’m 11 years old. I have good friends and you?”

As I began writing back—Meike had given her school in the Netherlands as a return address—I tried to describe how humbling it was to be isolated in a densely populated part of northern Europe: On Rottumeroog you see only earth, water, and sand, and the wind whistles in your ears. Meike eventually received my letter, and now, years later, I am still in touch with her family. People tend to think that being alone is a bad thing. But to me it felt like freedom in every vein.

This story appears in the January 2024 issue of National Geographic magazine.