passion

Outside work, I am inspired by the arts, sports, travel, my gardens, and all that is dear and near to me.

The arts

Photography is a way for me to record images. My travels, projects, gardens, and specific assignments: I translate them into images. I prefer to take up a (near-) natural perspective, taking my time whenever possible. A lot of this has been focused on Ethiopia, due to my frequent and elaborate journeys to this country, resulting in publications and expositions such as the window project.

Window project

Once you leave the asphalt, or the asphalt just stops, the roads in Ethiopia become dirt tracks, sometimes hidden by clouds of dust, then again interrupted by rivers and mud pools. Those tracks lead you to the daily life of Ethiopians. During one of my journeys, I had the idea not to jump out of the car as soon as we had a stop, but to stay in and wait and see what happened. Both side windows provided a perspective. Closed, or full of mud stains, or fully open. Often, a special form of contact was established. The ‘other’ was looking for contact with me, out of curiosity, to have a chat, to sell something, or to see what s/he could get out of it. From this perspective I took more than a thousand pictures during my travels, a number of which I selected for expositions.

Another medium for translating my thoughts is sculpture. For a couple of year I attended classes at an arts school, to become introduced to the art of sculpture. Acquiring such a skill and learning to look without the need to produce have been enriching experiences for me, teaching me to take up more space and discovering my own path in making images.

Photography expositions

Atrium, The Hague, 2006
Volkenkundig Museum, Leiden, 2006
Foto 21, Breevoort 2009

Travel

Travelling across the world is both a quest and a source of inspiration. Getting to know a different scenery and culture – this is what appeals to me. Travelling alone is a true adventure for me, a challenge too: overstepping my own limitations. It’s often about improvising, sometimes about surviving, then again about inspiration, being incited. Breaking loose from Dutch consensus thinking.

Gardens

For more than twenty years I have lived and worked at the same place in the church village of Den Hout. A lot has happened here. This is where my children matured into adults. Everything took shape over the years: the dilapidated Flemish barn, restored and now my work place; the house, with its kitchen table, fire place, and spaces that have become our own – so very pleasant and important; the former garden and pasture now containing new forms: of water, garden rooms, an orchard, and wild vegetation. It has become a special place for taking a stroll, with lovely spots to sit down or meditate and just enjoy the flora and fauna. There’s so much satisfaction in working the earth, inking it in, as it were.

Sports

Only at a later age did I become a dedicated sportsman. There were few possibilities when I was growing up, and later I was mostly swallowed up by work. Today, sporting is an essential part of my life, both my body and mind gain from it. It feels like active meditation and constitutes a source of inspiration. Running is addictive, the more so once the challenge to be able to run a real marathon presented itself – with the one in the Himalaya a very special occasion indeed. Now, regular practise is more important than hitting a peak and running the risk of injury. I also like bicycling a lot. Each year, I try to make a long hike on bicycle, sometimes by way of retreat on my way to Santiago de Compostela, Rome, or somewhere else in the world. The wonderful intense experience of basic travel: being close to people, self-supporting.

Dear and near

While writing this text I felt how everything in my life – my children, my beloved, work, sports and activities is connected, flowing seamlessly into one another. Nothing can be compartmentalised, everything is related. This is what makes my life beautiful, adding colour to it.