pomme



A wink to René Magritte’s ‘Ceci n’est pas une pomme’. This picture may cover a poet’s book we are working on.

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urban uselessness

It is not a creek in the middle of the jungle. It is a pool in the middle of my town. Environmental noises consist of traffic sounds and children playing in the streets. But no one goes here, to this specific location, as there is nothing to see, nor to do. (It comes to my mind that this is a good place to dump a dead body – I’m sorry for that sense of humour). It is a forgotten spot in a busy, noise city, but it’s not a peaceful one. It is not owned by anyone and it has no function. It makes clear that there’s a big difference between silence and emptiness.

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PERSIGUIENDO UN SUEÑO

I was happy to do the cover photography of Xandra Leima’s new music album PERSIGUIENDO UN SUEÑO (‘Following a dream’). This picture is one out of the series we shot in June. Xandro was born in Marcia, Spain but has settled in the Netherlands for a few years to work with Dutch artists and to promote his music.

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education


How to spend time with your kids during the holidays? Encourage them to develop their creative skills. I met a father and his two kids, somewhere on the South Bank in London. He teaches them the basics of the art of graffiti. The children love it, and I was happy to picture them.

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La Cité


La Cité de Carcassonne – for large picture see here

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level


It’s an optical illusion: Curiosité de l’Auriol. The road seems to go upwards but in fact it goes down. Therefore, any round object rolls -against basic natural laws- upwards, to the top of the hill. Science limits astonishment as shown in this picture. The numbers tell the tale: only a measurement with an object of science can clarify the contradiction.

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joy


In the Minerve caves, Languedoc (France), people have built small towers of stones. Every day new tourists continu to build new ones. There’s no invitation to do so. The appearance of the so formed landscape encourages them to copy the behaviour of their predecessors. The result is a huge artwork, dynamically growing and changing day by day. Apparently people like the structure, the uniform formations, the simplicity. ‘The joy of repetition is its constant recognition.’

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village in hdr


A village in Languedoc region, southern France. Vineyards, an ancient castle and a dramatic sky.

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balance


Holidays are all about restoring balance. After months of a continious ratrace there’s a timeout with sleeping, enjoying sunshine and spending time with the kids. For most of the people the contrast can’t be greater. However, once settled in the holiday house one realizes that there’s less mystic in the holidays compared to the to oasis so-long-looked-forward-to. A feeling of emptiness may arise. It is the ideal basis for growth, as the human mind only gets creative when bored.
A while ago a friend of mine asked: have you ever met someone in the final days of his life who wished he had spent more time on working?
Asking the question is answering it.

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poem

I am currently working on a series to be published with a collection of 100 poems. Author of the poems is my friend Aad. The working title of the collection is ‘Everyone has such an uncle’. I decided to portrait 10 people from 7 to 87 years of age. I will show them with a team leap effect and eyes closed to abstract from their individuality. This is a preview from today’s shooting. Eventually the portraits will be full body shots.

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final dance

At the end of the show there’s a final dance of all dance groups. The dancers thank the audience and vice versa. This is a universal and timeless principle. They say in ancient times dancing was meant to show feelings for one of the opposite gender, therefore perhaps being the basis for human reproduction. These youngsters, however, just seem to dance for their physical condition, leisure and fun. Like young puppy dogs biting and romping, it is no more than playing. The puppy dogs don’t realize that one day their developed skills will be useful and necessary when the real fight occurs.

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1970, 2011

In july 1970, when I was 3 months old, my parents, grandparents and I went on vacation. The above picture shows my grandfather standing in front of the holiday house. I assume my father took the picture, from the other side of the street. The house still exists and today I went there to explore. The lower picture is me standing in the footsteps of my grandfather. We all know the world has changed a lot over the decades, but allow me to believe that time stands still for such a moment. Especially the tiny little unimportant but unchanged details in these two photographs give me a silent feeling of both happiness and melancholy.

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pigeon

Curious pigeon showed up once we were settled on the beach.

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Lourdes

Even in Aruba, there’s a Lourdes. In the caves one stumbles upon a lot of catholic symbols, photo frames and small altars. The main theme is the deceased partner, parent or child. The holy place was created some 50 years ago. When I was there, nobody was around. I’m not sure if I felt silence, or it was just emptiness.

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artist of the dead


Emiel Bruggeman – In his artwork death is a prominent theme. Mostly he uses skulls, skins and bones of dead animals. The artworks emphasize life is just a temporary state, leaving unsaid what comes after. I like his ‘three tired horses’ which we will photograph on the beach this spring.
See also this portrait and this one.

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