a man with a leica

Out of the comfort zone

Going to Ukraine, Nepal, South Korea… creating human interest stories for organisations, foundations or as autonomous work, it’s what I do, what I like and what I feel comfortable with.

But I also love to get out of that comfort zone. I’m not necessarily looking for those opportunities, but when they present themselves,I like the idea and I feel that little unease in my tummy, I often say yes.

This week I had two assignments that I knew I could deliver, but I didn’t expect. I just don’t look for these opportunities because… well I’m out of the country to often.

One of them was a commercial gig, including a different camera (tethered shooting with a Leica M is a bitch and besides, I needed a full 200 mm zoom) and studio lighting. So I rented the whole lot and had a blast for two days. Models, set dressing, the works. Can’t show you any end results (yet), but I can show you some behind the scenes.

The other shoot was a festival shoot. Something that comes by a bit more often, but still isn’t my core business. And this time it was at the beach… A place called Ajuma. It was great and I love the results. Easy enough as the music, food and atmosphere were all great and even the weather (except for the wind) didn’t let us down. With the VSCO analog Kodak 400 filter it even got a bit more summer vibes if you ask me.

Next “out of the comfort zone” challenge will be in September when I do a wedding. Last time I did that is already a year ago. I’m looking very much forward to that one as well.

Leica store exhibition

The rest of July and all of August, over 120 photos are exhibited at the Leica store in Amsterdam. 12 stories, the oldest dating back to 2012 give an impression of what I have been doing the last couple of years.

The exhibition is divided over six large flatscreens and photos pass by in a nice flow. One TV even has sound, so I decided to exhibit two of the stories that I create in pageflow as well, as they have a certain flow, text ánd sound.

July 18th was opening night and I was honoured that so many friends came to check it out. Even coming all the way from Rotterdam. As always on such nights, you totally forget to document a thing. Luckily Karin Kooijwas there with her new Leica M10, grabbing some nice moments. Thanks a lot Karin.

KIOCH

A new assignment, again in Nepal. One of my favourite countries. Even the series that made it through to the finals of the SIPA has been made in this country. This trip I stayed in Kathmandu though.

The past week I have been working on creating a story for KIOCH: The Kathmandu Institute of Child Health. This initiative is the vision - the dream - of one of the most famous heart surgeons in the country; Prof Dr Bhagawan Koirala. Together with Executive director of the Karuna Foundation and general connector of beautiful initiatives; Deepak Raj Sapkota, he envisioned a new innovative way of paediatric health care.  By now they have formed a board with people who believe in their vision, got support from several places in the world, are helped by many volunteers and are working hard to make this dream a reality. A private paediatric hospital, where no child will be refused and where care and technology will set new bars to health care all over Nepal.

As it is still a dream and now reality, it was a challenge to create a story that would capture that vision and of course I’m still working hard to finish it, in order to make it an actual story. I visited many hospitals in Kathmandu, met with the minister of health and I even witnessed an open heart surgery. This blog was ment to keep you up to date and to give you a little teaser of what is to come. If you’d like more regular updates while I’m on these kind of assignments, make sure you follow me on instagram as I use their story option quite a lot while I’m away.

General Data Protection Regulation

From the 25th of May, bureaucracy has found a new high. We now have to state and document that we are actually nice people who are doing the best they can to use the data they gather - which comes automatically when working with other people - will be used with care and respect. I can totally see this when it concerns large insurance companies, or data wholesale-dealers like Facebook. But with small one-person businesses, I just don’t get it.

As these regulations and laws have many grey areas and lots is open for interpretation, I went looking for some sort of template I could use…. or at least people who understood more about it. Which unfortunately doesn’t come easily. Most photography related sites and institutions have a minimum of 5 different articles on it, every time explaining another piece of the puzzle.
And it’s not only about e-mail, invoices and address data, it’s also about photographs. Because images - specially the ones of people - are considered as (personal) data as well, things can get even more complicated.

I decided to give it my best shot and at the same time keep it short and simple like I did with the example contract that I borrowed of Segura. As I truly believe in the good of people and I sincerely hope nobody purposely tries to be a d*ck, I figured I would just state the obvious and give people an easy opportunity to opt out by means of an e-mail. So here I present to you, my privacy statement.