Magic flute

// September 7th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // life, photography

In love with magic

Randomness in your life, hitch, play and fly. A flute maker finds you on your way – after a long night of  sleeping cold along the highway – and he brings you further. You allow it, you surrender to the magic of the moment and you meet … your love.

She was dancing in the moonlight – in front of the bonfire on the tones of the flute you received, the flute that ‘has a life on its own‘ and that ‘will take you on an adventure’. Together you started a story that appeals and inspires, a story that truly can be called the magic flute trail…

Thanks – and I will never forget the beautiful Kira smile. (more photos)

Happy Hitching!

// August 16th, 2008 // 5 Comments » // photography, travel

Mary Poppins Hitchhiking

Camping on one of the most touristic hot-spots in Europe, waking up, looking up and seeing the Eiffel Tower enlightened by the beams of the early morning sun. The first European Hitchhiking Day was an amazing success.

I am generally not so easily thrilled by gatherings as they ordinarily tend to be much of the same, but this event was very remarkable. As a hitcher, to be among more than a hundred fellow-hitching-creatures is simply beyond imagining.

I hitched together with Julian, while we were followed by a camera-team from the Dutch news (video), and were dropped at the Eiffel Tower meeting point just 6 hours later. Yet another 6 hours further we were with a hundred people who all had hitched from different parts of Europe. We played games, exchanged stories, made music and danced into the night, while camping just in front of the Eiffel Tower. Aah, life. (more photos)

On top of the world

// July 24th, 2008 // No Comments » // photography, travel

Silence, dunes on our right, fields of green left, birds flutter, rabbits and hares jump of our trail as we reached the end of Terschelling. A man appears, grey bearded, with a walking stick, asking us, how do you do?

He is a bird-watcher and a forester. His barrack used to be where we are now, but 10 foot higher. A storm equalized the dune-landscape last year. No need to moan. The island moves all the time. New land is formed just ahead of us, and who knows where the next dune will stand? (more photos)

He is still somewhere out there

clowns everywhere

// June 2nd, 2008 // No Comments » // life, photography

There is so much to write, so many things have been hapening lately. Been away to Denmark, there is a new collective photo-website, I am helping to organise an (un)conference on hospitality exchange, have been on an adventurous trip to Enkhuizen (fun!), friends are visiting from all-over, work is steady and the house in full progress. And then there is also a new movement for Apathy… More to come soon!

Travelling souls

// April 10th, 2008 // No Comments » // photography, travel

Today a year ago I celebrated my birthday in Bern, Switzerland. Now that I have paused traveling I am excited to hear from friends who are themselves still on the road, or who just started traveling.

For example, whereas friend rouge is chasing German girls in South-East Asia, Ammasaisha is meeting guru-ground all around India. At the same time Leimac is having tons of fun with going his long way down by sand-boarding volcanoes in Latin America while Lasersurge sails the ocean, having been traveling for three years now. Or what about Chris, who is in Africa for over a year already?

Traveling inspires. Meet or be a traveler and you know what we mean by that: people that are out there, ‘away from home’ and creating their life by consciously dreaming – whatever that may be to us.

Special mention I would give Dani. He quit his job, took his bags and moved East. He is now in Tokyo creating great photography.

Everywhere Published

// March 25th, 2008 // No Comments » // photography

Everywhere Published!

While traveling last year I discovered this great thing called photography, and it really hooked me. I started to see my surroundings with new eyes as I developed a new dimension of looking at the world.

So I noticed the many colors around me and I got intrigued by water, light, ducks, birds, scenes, children and the cuddling waves of water. A whole new world opened up for me and my camera became a natural extension of my experience.

Little did I expect when I also started uploading my photos, but recently I got selected for a travel magazine and one of my Istanbul shots got actually published. Today I found the paper version (pdf, 17 mb) in my new mailbox and I can say this much: photos really do look better when printed. Yeah!

Never Enough Istanbul

// September 2nd, 2007 // No Comments » // photography, travel

It would be impossible to summarise Istanbul. There are only impressions, feelings and thoughts. No matter how many different perspectives you would acquire, there are simply too many different paths and lives here, to give a conclusion so sound that its people find their own stories back in it.

A city this huge just makes you realise there is yet more to explore. Never enough, there is always another corner and another road, another family and another party. Life of the Istanbul wo/man seems never-ending and no words can really grasp what this city is about.

Highlights, this is one of the few things what you might be able to offer. I recently made one small effort for this purpose. With the photo-essay “Live it and you will love it” I offer a viewpoint of what Istanbul-life for me is about, how I perceived the city, and how I see the people and culture here. I hope it offers you a good snapshot of Istanbul. (more…)

What keeps me busy

// July 16th, 2007 // No Comments » // photography, work

The past weeks have revealed to me a new or rather different scope of politics and photography.

Sunday morning in Istanbul and church bells wake me up. From the place I stay I can hear them not only on Sunday’s but sometimes on Thursday’s and Frıday’s too. A very familiar sound for me as I grew up in a large town with easily more than twenty churches and only three bars.

Istanbul is pretty much well-known for its diversity; it always has. It’s a very cosmopolitan city with people from all different identities. But did you know as well that Turkey itself is inhabited by over thirty different ethnicity’s? (more…)

Breathing Istanbul

// May 29th, 2007 // No Comments » // hospitality, photography, travel

Children playing everywhere, families in the parks eating fish that the men just caught in the Bosphorus strait, busy markets and streets, and smoke of waterpipes all around you. Istanbul is not only a very beautiful city, but foremost a very active one with a lively outdoor culture. It breathes life in every corner you find.

You don’t have to go far to discover this, to sense the Istanbul atmosphere. Its people are very alive pretty much everywhere. Within a minute that I walk out of the door of my new place I can easily find someone smiling, a shopkeeper saying hello to me or people speaking to each other. Children look very happy all the time and sometimes don’t stop laughing; so full of life they are. (more…)