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1. Portrait of Mira

This is a photographic black and white portrait I took from my friend Mira. It was taken with an analog camera. It seems like Mira looks right into the camera but if you take a second look you start to doubt that. Mira wears a subtle crown made of snail shells. On her left we see something that looks like a shadow but it is her electric wheelchair. I searched for multiple beautiful snail shells and ended up with cheap ones from the super-marked because they were the largest I could find. I taped them om onto a diadem so Mira could wear them on her head. I went to her house to take her portrait. Actually there wasn’t enough light, but we had no other option according to the location.

I made the portrait for Mira’s album because she is a Jazz singer. Her album is called ‘ Festina lente ‘ , freely translated as ‘ Hurry up slowly’, witch [which] is an ancient Greek adage. Mira was born with a disability, and therefore her life is quit different from the lives of most people around her. She is always in search of her own rhythm and tempo, as she has many ambitions and dreams. Slowness is something she used to find herself fighting against, while getting older, it is something she’s embracing a bit more, and even incorporates it in her work and life. We thought that the very simple symbol of a snail would suit the title and concept of the album. Waring wearing it as a crown instead of wearing it as a burden.

2. Still

The work is a slightly grainy photograph, shot with an analog camera. The aspect ratio is 16:9 , so the image looks look a film - still. Pictured in the image we see a landscape: a long stretched meadow and a slightly clouded sky. On the left side in the front we see a group of people, dressed in white, holding up a firemansblanket. They are looking up to the sky, all concentrated on what might come down. On the right side in the front we see two people, also dressed in white, holding a stretcher and rushing away from the group of people. On their stretcher lies a collapsed young man. On his back we see a pair of huge ears, grown from his back like wings. In the distance we see another group of people with rescue blanked. Above them, we see a hazy flash of something that could be a person falling down from high in the sky.

The idea of this image started with a fascination for groups of people doing traditional performances but also art performances within the context of wide landscapes. I collected many images or elements of images and from there on I started to make sketches of different happenings. As I got along, the story of the image grew. When I came tho the situation with a group of people rescuing someone with a firemans blanket I started to collect the props, the wardrobe, scout a location and I made the big ear-wings out of latex. I wrote down the story and told it to the actors on the day I shot the image. So that it felt that they where playing a scene from a film. The mise en scene was already set.

The story is a small, almost mythical tale about a group of people who where the last ones in the world who could truly listen to others. As a result of that, a pair of large ears started to grow on their backs. Now they could listen to more stories at the same time, and people would crowd up on them to tell what made them unhappy, or sometimes, what made them happy. If it got to much, they could use their big ears as wings, to fly off to the silence of the sky. At some point it got to heavy and the listeners started to fall down from the sky.

I’ve been working as an art director for film for some time, and I always longed to make up my own stories to visualize and then execute. I figured that doing this by approaching just one image as a film-still , would be the exact right method for me to create what I want to create. This approach would mean that I still collect and design the wardrobe, props and setting, but within my own vision and a different time frame.

3. Waterlooplein series

The work is a series of analog documentary photographs. About two third is black and white, the others are in color. The photographs are printed out and are composed almost as a collage. They are placed next to each other with very little space in between. Some of the pictures are composed next to each other because of literal image rhyme, some on rhythm or color, some on content. On the photo’s we see market vendors, visitors and secondhand goods from the flea-market on the Waterlooplein. A place located in he city center of Amsterdam. We see people fishing for small treasures in piles of trash. old people The pictures where taken during spring. There is also a soundscape that you can hear in the room where the pictures are exposed. You hear general market noise alternated with bits of conversations between people at the market.

I started to walk around the market and think of a way to capture the atmosphere that is so unique to me. I tried to focus on particular themes but as I went along I experienced that pointing your camera at people (and taking your time to do it right) all your sensors should be in a very focused modus (this sentence doesn’t make sense..?@). So I just shot what happend in front of my eyes, in a very intuitive way. I walked around the market for about a week and a half. I was a bit overwhelmed by all the reactions you get while photographing.

I wanted to capture the Waterlooplein in its current state right before the municipality announced big renovations. The announcement ended up in a huge protest from the market vendors. Having learnt a bit about the history of the market, I knew that the market would adept and find its new way around the renovations. Its been there for over 200 years and had many forms and shapes, and has always been a safe home for those who perhaps live on the edge of society. Because of that, I see its importance within the city, and it made me fear to lose it.