Article + Photography in Musotrees Magazine

When Musotrees founder Kerol Izwan asked me to write something for his magazine, I immediately said yes. Because Musotrees doesn't only feature great content ("that focuses on journey and destination"), the periodical print from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is also incredibly well-designed. For Volume 5, I wrote a story about my first couple of months in Kenya. You can find the 12 pages with words and 6 pictures on page 22 to page 33 of the magazine, which is for sale here. In The Netherlands, the magazine is for sale at Atheneum Nieuwscentrum in Amsterdam.

Jimmy Nelson travelled to Kenya, Africa with Charlie's Travels

Renowned photographer Jimmy Nelson travelled to Kenya to go on an off the beaten track Charlie's Travels trip with Dutch TV presenter Sophie Hilbrand and actor Waldemar Torenstra (and their two kids). Drawing a lot of inspiration from Jimmy's photography work, it was quite exciting for me to be involved with this trip, as the Content Manager of Charlie's Travels. Jimmy took some amazing pictures and wrote a small testimonial about their trip, which is also online on the blog page of the Charlie's Travels website. 

Click below to read Jimmy’s travelogue - you can also check out the interview with him I made, about his sequel to Before They Pass Away: ‘Homage to Humanity’.

NPO Radio 1 interview: how's life in Kenya?

Almost half a year ago, Dutch radio host Thomas van Vliet called me to ask me some questions about my stay in Kenya. This morning in his radio show 'Fris!', he invited me on his programme to get an update: which parts of Eastern Africa have I visited in the last couple of months? Do I like to chew khat by now? And what is it like to camp in the territory of wild Mount Kenya elephants? I answer all these (and some more) questions in the 15 minute interview - you can listen to the conversation (in Dutch) via this link. 

Coming up: a story about Kenya in Musotrees Magazine

Musotrees founder Kerol Izwan asked me to write a story about my stay in Kenya - and so I did! You can read my 1300 words (EN) in the upcoming edition of Musotrees Magazine, which is almost available worldwide. You can check out two sneak peeks above - the magazine is getting printed as I write this! If you look closely, you can see a bit of my story and the photography that goes with it. I'll update my blog page once the Volume 5 of the magazine is available. 

Margriet interview on Smartphone Photography

I was interviewed for the extra large summer special of Margriet, one of The Netherlands' biggest women's magazines. I gave a bunch of tips and tricks on how to take the perfect (summer holiday) picture with your phone. You can check out the (Dutch) 5 page article on Blende (€)!

Travelafrique Photo Blog

Travel website TravelAfrique asked my to contribute a photo blog about Kenya! In the 'Kenya Encouters - Kenya through the lens of a Dutchman' post, I share five pictures I took during my stay here in Kenya. TravelAfrique has previously featured my work on their popular Instagram account, just like they did this time. 

Fotolab KieKie Instagram Take-over

I'm taking of the Instagram-account of the renowned, Amsterdam-based FotoLabKiekie! The famous photo laboratorium isn't just the go-to place in Amsterdam to get a picture professionally printed, they're also the creators of the quarterly published Kiekie Tabloid. On the side, they run a pretty neat Instagram account, where they mainly focus on featuring young talent. This week, until July 16th, I'll be posting some of my best work on their account. Check it out!

Streets of New York in Süddeutsche Zeitung

Streets of New York keeps on getting positive attention in the world press - German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung has written an article about the MENDO book in the Saturday edition of their newspaper. The article in one of Germany's biggest newspapers focuses on my editorial journey to find new angles and perspectives on The Big Apple. You can read the article about MENDO's and teNeues' 'Bildband' through this link, or check out the plain text below. The headline, 'Der Reiz des Neuen' translates to 'The Charm of the New'.

Der Reiz des Neuen

Typische New-York-Momente, die man so aber noch nicht gesehen hat - wie soll das gehen? Ein Band versammelt die Werke von 40 zumeist jungen Fotografen, die zeigen, dass das sehr wohl möglich ist.

Kein Ort der Welt ist so schwierig einzufangen mit der Kamera wie New York: "Jeder Zentimeter", schreibt Joost Bastmeijer in der Einleitung zu dem Bildband "Streets of New York", ist "schon dokumentiert worden". Andererseits verändert sich die Stadt viel schneller als andere, bietet also stets neue Motive. Und jeder Neuankömmling, jeder Besucher sucht nach einer eigenen Perspektive.

Bastmeijer hat sich durch unzählige Online-Portfolios und Instagram-Accounts geklickt auf der Suche nach Fotografen, die tatsächlich neue, eigene Bilder-Geschichten finden. Er ist tatsächlich - zwischen Unmengen immer gleicher Aufnahmen - fündig geworden. 40 Fotografen sind mit ihren Werken in "Streets of New York" vertreten, nicht alle Szenen sind wirklich originell. Viele aber doch. Deren Stärke ist, dass sie sich nicht im Absonderlichen verlieren. Es sei, so Bastmeijer, immer darum gegangen, dass der Betrachter jedes Mal einen typischen New-York-Moment erkennt. Casey Tang, der mit Bildern in dem Band vertreten ist, bemerkt dazu: "Gute Fotografie wahrt eine Balance zwischen Vertrautheit und Neuem." Drei größere Linien fallen auf: Manhattan wird nicht mehr so sehr von unten, sondern zumeist von oben fotografiert. Das unterirdische New York übt offenbar einen starken Reiz aus. Und viele Künstler fotografieren durch ein Motiv im Vordergrund hindurch etwas Dahinterliegendes - Sinnbild für die ständige Überschreibung des Stadtbildes.

Streets of New York & TINAFSSB in this month's Glamour

Two of the books I have recently worked on for MENDO and teNeues are featured in this month's Glamour Magazine! Both Streets of New York as This Is Not a F*cking Street Style Book can be seen in this month's edition. For both books, I was in charge of the editorial coordination. Next to the page-big picture by Stijn Hoekstra, the Dutch text says: "From 5th Avenue till Washington Street in Brooklyn; coffee table book 'Streets of New York' shows the inspiring diversity of the Big Five". You can read both articles here, via Blendle.

New Charlie's Travels Campaign: Familiereizen Afrika

As a (freelance) Content Manager for Nairobi-based travel startup Charlie's Travels, I'm responsible for all outgoing content, both textual as audiovisual. One of the big tasks for the Content & Marketing team is the expansion of 'CT', from a student travel agency to a responsible, grown-up travel agency for off the beaten track trips to Eastern and Southern Africa. 

Charlie's Travels has already organized lots of trips for families over the past few years, but it's the student image that sticks. That's why our content team member Yuri made a kick-ass new video of an off the beaten track trip that Sido and Saskia and their grown-up children made through Kenya!

The video above marks the kick off of Charlie's Travels video campaign, which we're pushing on Facebook, where the vid already reached over 22k people. Check out the Charlie's Travels Facebook page or the site's blog page if you'd like to see more unique content, made by my colleagues and me. 

See my 'Ice Man' photos in Les Others Magazine

Les Others has published six pages with my pictures and texts in their French-English magazine! Their 'Volume VI' issue is dubbed 'The Radical Issue', and so they have featured the pictures I took in Norway, when I captured an ice swim of Trygve. He's a bearded Norseman who froze his grandfather because he believes that if you keep a corpse cold enough, it will at some point in time be possible to resuscitate it. He also thinks that ice baths are healthy for anyone who is still alive, and that’s why he went for a swim in the middle of the harsh winter. 

'The Radical Issue' is for sale via the Les Others website - they ship worldwide. One of the pictures was featured and auctioned by the Australian web page The Adventure Handbook. 

'This Is Not A F*cking Streetstyle Book' is here!

I'm proud to be a part of the newest lovechild of MENDO, Adam Katz Sinding and teNeues Publishing: 'This Is Not A Fucking Streetstyle Book'. The book features the amazing and fashionable pictures of Adam, aka 'Le 21eme'. My colleague Mikel was in charge of the texts and interviewed Adam Katz Sinding and Virgil Abloh. The editorial coordination was my responsibility.

As I'm writing this, Adam is flying over the world to launch the book in the following (insanely cool) stores: The Broken Arm (Paris),  KM20 (Moscow), STORY (Tel Aviv), The Room By Basmatée (Prague), Boonteshop (Seoul), GR8 (Tokyo), JUICE (Hong Kong), Harrolds (Sydney), 424 (Los Angeles), STORM (Copenhagen), SMETS (Luxembourg), BASTIEN (Madrid), THE STORE, Soho House (Berlin), VIER (Antwerp), KITH (New York City) and of course MENDO & Olaf Hussein (Amsterdam). 

The book is for sale at the above listed stores and online, in the award winning MENDO webshop. Check out this article by VICE to read more about the book and the tour.

TV work: Veel Liefs Uit Holland

For 'Veel Liefs Uit Holland', my partner Saskia and I directed and filmed the Nairobi bit of the final episode. Five expats from all over the world tried to find a partner through this Dutch reality TV show and we followed Nairobi-based Joep, who eventually met his girlfriend Thirsa through the program. They have been living together for some months now, so we visited the couple to film how they're doing.

'Veel Liefs Uit Holland' is produced by John de Mol's Talpa and aired on Dutch television stations Net 5 and SBS 9. You can check out the bit we have worked on here, from 52:30.