The last two weeks, Saskia and I traveled through Iran! Because it was quite a hassle to upload my pictures to Instagram, I’m posting the pictures the coming few weeks. Some photos, however, were already featured on the NOS.nl website.
NOS, the biggest news broadcaster of The Netherlands, placed my pictures next to a couple of articles on the Iranian presidential elections. Check out the articles here and here!
You'll find more features, collaborations and assignments on the 'Features' page.
Over the last few months, I worked on ‘The Workshop’, a new book made and published by MENDO. As an editor, I worked with Renée Leeuw and photographer Iris Duvekot on the text work of the book. I also wrote the book’s introduction.
The Workshop features 25 Dutch creatives including Guillaume Philibert, Carli Hermès, Erwin Olaf and Ans Markus; showing their ateliers, offices and workshops. Get your copy via the all-new, award-winning MENDO.nl.
One of my pictures is published in the Dutch edition of Lonely Planet Traveller! This month’s edition is dedicated to festivals all over the world, and for that reason the editors featured a picture I took in Ivory Coast, during Grand Bassam’s annual Abissa festival.
You'll find more features, collaborations and assignments on the 'Features' page.
I entered the 2017 edition of LensCulture’s Portrait Awards, and submitted six pictures I took in India and Ivory Coast, last year. Each year, a group of photography experts are selecting the best portraits from all over the world. The 2017 jury members were Susan White (Vanity Fair), Philip Prodger (National Portrait Gallery), photographer Todd Hido, Jennifer Pastore (The Wall Street Journal Magazine), Whitney Johnson (National Geographic), Fiona Rogers (Magnum Photos), Genevieve Fussell (The New Yorker) and Jim Casper (LensCulture).
Although my pictures didn't make it to the final round, I received some interesting feedback on my submission, which I think is really helpful for any aspiring photographer like me - so I shared the full review below. If you have any thoughts on my pictures as well, do let me know!
Joost, you have submitted a dynamic group of single images for the review. I can see through your work and biography that you are very committed to developing your vision and photographic language. It is wonderful to see how photography inspired you to explore the world around you and engage with different communities. It is very helpful to the work that you included short caption information to support each image. Your audience may appreciate learning just a little more about each scene and the captions add depth to the story.
Let's discuss your photographs. Image #5, highlights your strength in using color and composition to hold your viewer's attention. The subjects in the foreground act as a strong visual device in contrast to patterned textile on the ground. I wonder if you could have eliminated some of the additional brighter information on the right side of the frame? Regardless, this image is by far your most sophisticated photograph. Your use of the repeating lines through the carpet worked very well. In image #6, the closer focal length invited me to look longer and engage with your subject. I was moved by the intensity of the eye contact and expression from your young subject. Image #1 is striking in your use of light but I find myself wanting to move past this image. The frame feels less formally aware when compared to your strongest images. There did not seem to be enough engagement from the main subject which led me to move past this image more quickly In image #3, you captured movement and the woman's gaze was very important to the success of this image. It was the sharpest aspect of the shot and felt just right. The energy and movement captured in image #2 was exciting but this frame was also very well organized visually.
There is very strong travel photography that I am sure you have seen featured in publications like National Geographic. I would also encourage you to articulate and identify elements that specific photographers are doing in these features. Oftentimes, travel photographers will be hired for a specific style, whether it be their use of color and framing or something entirely different.
You have a lot of strengths in your work, specifically, attention to light, color and expression which combine to make some dynamic portraits. I think you have done a fine job at articulating your voice in the form of environmental portraiture. Your submission begins to introduce your voice as a photographer interested in people and travel. I would encourage you to reflect on what allows your favorite photographers to differentiate themselves from the many types of images that we see. Two photographers, that come to mind that have completed unique work abroad are Steve McCurry and Raghubir Singh? I think you would find their work inspiring.
Thank you for sharing your photography and best of luck with your work. Please see the additional resources that I included below to help support your goals.
A couple of weeks ago, I was in Austin to attend the Interactive conference of South By Southwest. I reported in Dutch about my findings, and you can read the blog posts I made on NPO.nl/sxsw!
From fake news to the Brexit, from Trump to Facebook Live and from atomised news to clickbait: you can read all about it in 22 blogposts. Some of them are brief, some of them are more in-depth, and they're all in Dutch!
I'd love to hear what you think about my reports - don't hesitate to connect me via Twitter, or via mail. I hope the posts are as inspiring to you as the talks in Texas were for me.
Look what 1.5 million people saw in a recent episode of 'Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden': Depart! The book was recently visible in a store scene that took place in 'Meerdijk', the fictional village where the most popular soap of The Netherlands takes place.
After taking over their Instagram account, the guys from Escapism Magazine also featured my photography in their print edition! If you're in the United Kingdom, you can check out the donkey shot I took in Jordan in the March edition of UK's biggest independent travel magazine. Here's what they wrote:
"Follow Amsterdam-based Joost's adventures to West Africa, India and more for a glimpse into the daily lives of the country's residents. Baguettes on a motorbike? Donkey in a desert? Soccer at sunset? It's all here."
You'll find more features, collaborations and assignments on the 'Features' page.
For the first time in my life, I've hosted a video web series! For Dutch mobile telephone provider Simyo and in cooperation with Bruut Amsterdam and advertising agency Kokoro, I'm giving some tips and tricks on how to take a good picture with a smartphone.
There are four videos online: one is about macro photography, another about portrait photography. And in Rotterdam, we filmed the episodes about Light and Composition! You can check out the videos on YouTube - please watch them and let me know what you think!
When The Guardian put ‘Depart’ high on their ‘Top 10 Travel Books for Christmas’ list, more and more people learned about the photo book we made. Some of those people work at Great Britain’s biggest independent travel magazine Escapism Magazine, a monthly publication (with a circulation of 100,600) that goes out across London once a month.
They’ve asked me to take over their Instagram account, so make sure to check out their feed on the following couple of days! Pictures I took in India will also appear in their newsletter and the March issue of Escapism Magazine - so if you're in London in March, grab me a copy okay?!
When Diane Audrey Ngako asked me if I'd like to temporarily 'take over' her platform's Instagram account, I didn't hesitate for a second. "To inspire you to travel around Africa", she started the @visiterlafrique account and the linked website two years ago. Eventually, she even quit her job as a Le Monde journalist to pursue her African dream - she now runs a big, and still growing platform with 'ambassadors' all over the African continent.
From last Monday until the end of today, I've posted pictures of my trip to Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal on Diane's @visiterlafrique Instagram account, you can check them out here. I'd love to hear what you think - send me a message !
Pretty exciting: MENDO book 'Depart' is one of the best travel books of 2016, according to The Guardian. On their website, one of the biggest English news websites of the world, Will Coldwell names 'Depart' in The Guardian's 'Top 10 Travel Books For Christmas' list. The book is also recently featured on culture & fashion website Hypebeast. Check it out! Or just buy the book here.
We’re back from our trip to Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal! And if you haven’t already read about it on Instagram: we had three great weeks. Ivory Coast is tropical, in your face, lively and a bit crazy. I loved the 'maquis', little bars where you can drink a beer and eat some fried chicken, and the Abissa festival in Grand-Bassam was more than awesome.
Mali is a lot calmer, but there’s something simmering, right underneath the surface. It’s weird to visit a country at war, but apart from the military checkpoints in and around Bamako, day to day life goes on. It’s a country with a lot of kids - the average Malian is 16 years old - and we spotted a lot of kids. Even in the sparsely populated areas of the country we had encounters with toddlers that looked at us like they’ve never seen a white person before, which might just be the case.
Senegal is a richer country, more controlled, and we had a lot of fun in the beautiful eastern corner of the country, around Kédougou. We’ve also been to Saint-Louis and Dakar, two bigger cities that used to be very important for the French colons, and that’s still noticeable. You can see some of the pictures I took in those three countries above - I'll also be sharing my thoughts on an African HUB-account on Instagram. Follow me on IG to see which account that's going to be and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to send me an email!
