New work for Het Parool: a story about Amsterdam's gable stones

In the PS weekend magazine of Dutch daily Het Parool, you can read how I took on a rather peculiar assignment when I couldn’t travel back to our apartment in Kenya: Lieke asked me to photograph hundreds of Amsterdam’s ‘stone tablets’.

A bit more than a year ago, when COVID cases surged in The Netherlands, Lieke asked me to join her on a walk through a near empty Amsterdam – did I ever see these beautiful little pieces of art bricked into the walls of Amsterdam’s houses?

I must’ve cycled past them countless times, these so-called ‘gable stones’ showcasing ships, circus tents, angels and lovebirds. Could I photograph these tablets for her new Instagram account, Lieke asked? I decided that this could actually give my pointless lockdown walks some purpose, and said yes. My ‘gable stone safari’ had begun.

What I learnt from these little depictions filled with history, mystery and fantastic stories, often hidden in plain sight, can be read in a story I wrote for Het Parool. Click here to read the piece, or check out some of my photos over at Instagram: @stonetabletsofamsterdam!

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New Dutch Photography Exhibition at Melkweg Amsterdam

As a New Dutch Photography Talent, I’m very proud to share that my work is on display at the legendary music venue ‘De Melkweg’ in Amsterdam! Together with the other ‘New Dutch’ talents, my work is beautifully printed by Fotolab Kiekie and exhibited at the ‘EXPO’ part of De Melkweg. Browse through the pictures above (from left to right) to see more of the exhibition.

Read more about the New Dutch Photography project, set up by GUP Magazine & Nikon, in my previous blogpost.

Buy one of my photos at the Eye For All photo auction

In less than three days, auction site catawiki.com and NGO WarChild will set up a photo auction, called ‘Eye For All’. From 9 to 16 November, you'll be able to get your hands on fine art prints of “some of the best photographers of The Netherlands”. I’ve also been asked to donate a picture!

All yields will go to WarChild's 'Safe Spaces' project, which creates safe environments where children can process their negative experience, often caused by war. Children who haven't gone to school for a longer period of time, are getting further training, focused on catching up and entering the regular education system again.

The Eye for All photo auction is an initiative of Annet de Graaf, commissioned by Catawiki. For this project, Annet approached 75 Dutch photographers, such as Kadir van Lohuizen, Elspeth Diederix, Corbino, Nick van Tiem, Eddy van Wessel, Raymond Rutting, Jimmy Nelson and Brooks Kraft. She also asked me to donate one of my pictures (see below), which will also be for sale - the starting price for this print will be 250 euros.

To find out more about the photo auction, check out this Facebook page, this WarChild web page or the event page of venue Melkweg Amsterdam. For more of the photography that’ll be on sale, check out my blog at the Hatje Cantz Fotoblog!

'Living in Style: Amsterdam' is now available

'Living in Style: Amsterdam' is the first collaboration between MENDO and German publisher teNeues - and it's available in shops around the world from this moment! MENDO colleague Mikel van den Boogaard and I are responsible for every word in the book - from the introduction to the interviews, and from the captions to the backcover blurp.

Oh, and it gets even better: you can win a night in one of the very fancy Amsterdam hotels that are featured in the book! If you can picture yourself in a Conservatorium, Pulitzer or SirAdam hotel bed, get yourself a copy of 'Living in Style: Amsterdam'!

You can buy the book, focused on Dutch interior design, through the MENDO web store. 

There's a new Artfest evening on its way

Artfest is back! The talkshow about art, hosted by Marian Cousijn and Ernst-Jan Pfauth of De Correspondent, starts its new season on Amsterdams yearly 'Museum Night' event. The theme of the first edition is 'Future dreams' and will feature three guests from the international art scene - Agatha Haines, Jesse Howard and Lennart Booij will be interviewed on stage (more info here!). And because of the 'Museumnacht', the Artfest stage will be in the world famous 'Stedelijk Museum'! I will be there to direct the talkshow, and I hope I'll see you there as well: Museumnacht tickets can be bought through this link. 

Interview on 'Starring Amsterdam'

Bastiaan Sizoo, one of the illustrious Sizoo brothers, interviewed me for his brand new blog 'Amsterdamview'. Though this was his first interview ever, he wrote a nice piece on 'Starring Amsterdam', the photo book that MENDO recently published. I was responsible for the texts in the book, and Bastiaan wanted to know some more about the photographers and how I came up with 250 pages of 'nice to know / need to know'-texts. You can read the interview here!

The 10 Best Instagrammers of Amsterdam

Everybody loves lists. And I especially love them if they feature me as the number one Instagram photographer of Amsterdam, like the Dutch newspaper Het Parool did (sorry for bragging) some time back. Luckily, I wasn't on their 'Biggest Photo Cliché's of Amsterdam'-list.