I am a photographer born and based in Amsterdam, currently studying at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. Having grown up in the big city, life has moved pretty fast around me for as long as I can remember. One step outside the door and you get a big rush of traffic, people, big ideas and places you have to be. I think before I understood any of this I already felt that it was a lot, so I would create my own little dreamworld by watching movies, listening to music, reading books, and spending hours in the back of the car watching everything pass by like the car window was a movie screen. My parents caught on and would make occasional detours to calm me down. I think being this type of kid really shaped my creative brain to be observant of the calming, soft and beautiful things that are hidden in our busy surroundings.
I grew up with a mother working in fashion, which gave me an early love for color, fabric and texture. For years I wanted to work in film or fashion, until I realized that what I love about both is the still frame. The frozen moment, the snapshot of a nice color combination or beautiful composition. Photography is the medium that ties all my interests together.
I work primarily analogue, film handles color in a way nothing else compares to, soft and vibrant at the same time. The slowness of the process is something I deeply appreciate. I have been told my whole life that I think and talk too much, and I won't argue with that. But when I'm shooting or sitting in an edit, everything settles. Creating is one of the only things that truly quiets my mind, and one of the few places I feel completely confident.
My practice moves between portraiture, editorial work, and more abstract or documentary photography, searching for the beauty and sensitivity in everyday life. I work in a multidisciplinary way: sewing onto photographs and paper, experimenting with different printing techniques, and treating editing almost like painting, manipulating light and color until the image emotionally makes sense.
My talking skills come in handy whenever I try to tell someone else's story. I love a deep conversation, getting to understand someone on a level they don't usually get to share. One of my proudest works is about a good friend who survived bone cancer at fifteen. I witnessed her go through it from pretty close by, but never knew exactly how she experienced it, because it was quite heavy to talk about. Six years later we finally did. I made a photo series based on her story and sewed her scar onto the front page.
In my work I will always look for sensitivity and intention, whether that is in the story, material or process. It is what matters most to me.