W
hat’s your
background?
I’m a 25-year-
old philosophy
student living in Utrecht, the
Netherlands. I was born on a
farm quite far away from a small rural town,
but I was always a city person, unlike my
parents who are real countryside people.
My first encounters with photography were
from my father, who shot mostly landscapes
and nature, but I didn’t become interested
until I discovered street photography.
I’ve always gotten obsessed with
whatever interested me, and tried to
write and compose music before moving
to photography. Literature, especially
existentialist philosophy and fiction
(Dostoevsky and Kierkegaard) is still my
major source of inspiration, and I always
listen to music when shooting, mostly hip-
hop and instrumental jazz.
I’ve struggled quite a bit with both social
and general anxiety before I discovered
photography and still prefer spending my
nights editing or watching films, or drinking
and playing chess with friends at home
over going out. Another thing besides music
and photography that’s important to me
is working out, and powerlifting three days
a week helps me remain focused and calm,
greatly aiding the creative process.
When did you first get into photography?
Roughly one and a half years ago, around
February 2018. I had always been a walker,
which was therapeutic for me. At some point
I felt like I just wanted to capture things I saw.
When did you start to become interested
in street photography?
About three months after that. My first
camera was a instax mini-format Polaroid,
and I graduated to 35mm film cameras,
buying an old Voigtländer once I realised
shooting 20 polaroids a day was too
expensive. At first I kept with my old style,
mostly shooting cityscapes, architecture
and small details I found interesting. At a
certain point I realised that I needed people
and moments to tell the stories I wanted to
tell. 35mm tied in with that. Compared to
Polaroid, it was a relatively inexpensive and
fast medium, and it allowed me to fail more.
How did you develop your style?
Part of it was the lo-fi nature of my early
equipment and my social fears. The
focusing mechanism on my first camera
was broken and the lens was foggy and full
of fungus. It forced me to go for atmosphere
first and embrace abstraction. I was also
just too scared of repercussions to shoot
people, so I shot them through reflections
and behind fogged windows.
Right
Replicant
Shot through a scooter’s
windshield near a neon
sign, this just breathes
Bladerunner to me, and
i like the twist in his
posture – it makes it
very dynamicBelow
Glowing Eyes
A reflection of a metal
escalator, which creates
ripples in the light.
Somehow two spots
of light landed exactly on
a silhouette where the
eyes would beBelow middle
A little strange
Shot at the cafe of the
Stedelijk Museum in
Amsterdam. i just loved all
the loose elements, and
it’s a little tribute to the
museum’s art collectionFar right
Snow
in the background are the
statues lining the entry of
a famous cafe/restaurant
in my city, i like the
timeless feel and sense of
time and placeinterview