Statement

Since I graduated in 1997 at the Rietveld academy in Amsterdam I have developed my own unique style of photography. My work is mostly made during long walks at the dividing line between nature and the outskirts of the city. I worked in such various places as Las Vegas, Yellowstone, Bangkok, London, Lanzarote, Amsterdam, Old Route 66 and Normandy.

I’m fascinated by the concept of anonymity and abandonment. I am moving through the world, hoping for anonymity, hoping I am able to humble myself enough to see and record what others – preoccupied with their hectic everyday lives – won’t see. As is the case in most of my work, I am not interested in pure registration or a factual approach of the things I am photographing. Instead I feel a strong connection to the more free flowing nature of painting and music. The objects and subjects which I photograph remain veiled but at the same time expose an undefinable distant reality. They are part of a world in which the distinction between dream and reality is not stable; a world in which time has become diffuse.

In my latest work I combine physical and digital road-trip photography, portrait photography and excerpts from old Creative Commons films to make up an initial image. This image is then printed very small on ordinary copy-paper to induce little mistakes the printer makes in the ink distribution. This results in a very peculiar grain; a bit like the grain of an 8mm filmstrip. I proceed to put pastel and painting materials on the image to enhance the alienated look I want to convey. Finally I make a full frame reproduction so the end result is a photograph.

I constantly explore new materials and new viewpoints to make interesting images but in the end throughout all of my work I try to stay as close as possible to my original way of thinking, which maybe defines itself best as: Revealing the tangibility of the seemingly unreal.