2006-06-13

Walkabouts (photo and book project)

Project name: Walkabouts
Status: [13/06/2006] Initial project definition.
            [07/08/2006] First walkabout, from Durgerdam along IJsselmeer coast to Marken & Volendam.

Project progress
In this big project I'll be photographing people, oddities, funny things, experiences, etc that I encounter on walkabouts that I'm planning to take. Initially, to gain experience, I'll be taking one-day walks from my home town to several others places and communities. In the future, the walking distance and the duration of the walks can be increased to two-day walks, one-week walk, or even longer. Transportation will be on foot, though occasional hitch-hiking, moped rides, horse rides, boat rides, etc might also be accepted.

Locations and final destinations might be:

  • Utrecht, over Abcoude and Breukelen

  • Amersfoort, over Weesp, Bussum, Hilversum, and Soest

  • Zandvoort, over Haarlem

  • Along the Noordzeekanaal to IJmuiden

  • Along the IJsselmeer coast to Marken and/or Volendam


The project is only in initial project design. One or more books are expected to result from this project. As yet there is no end date fixed.


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Micro financing in Mongolia (photo and writing project)

Project name: Micro financing in Mongolia
Status: [13/06/2006] Negotiations with micro financeer.
            [04/08/2006] Meeting appointment negotiated for 18/08/2006 in UB, Mongolia.

Project progress
I'm currently negotiating one or more photo shoots in Mongolia, depicting one or more micro financing projects there. With these photos and the accompanying report, I want to raise awareness of these worthwhile, needed and useful projects.

The resulting photos and report are meant to appear in several Dutch and Mongolian (other countries?) newspapers, and on websites dedicated to Mongolian news and affairs. The photos might also get selected by a large Dutch bank to promote the micro financing projects they support.

The project is currently in negotiation with the micro financeer in Mongolia. One or more internet and newspaper publications are expected to result from this project. The shooting is destined to take place in August, with publications following later in the year.


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Mongolia at work (photo and book project)

Project name: Mongolia at work
Status: [13/06/2006] Initial project definition.

Project progress
In this project I aim to produce a series of portraits about people in different jobs, showing their daily life, their work, their experiences as a "day-in-the-life-of" serie. The people will all be Mongolians or foreigners who work for an extended period in Mongolia.

For this project I have already selected a few people who might want to participate:

  • A Mongolian poet

  • A bank administrator

  • A seemstress/tailor

  • A tourist guide

  • A student

  • A shop keeper

  • A truck driver

  • A stay-at-home mom


The project is only in initial project design. A book is expected to result from this project. As yet there is no end date fixed.


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Vanishing Mongolia (photo and book project)

Project name: Vanishing Mongolia
Status: [13/06/2006] Initial project definition.

Project progress
In this big project I'm photographing the rapidly vanishing aspects of Mongolia's capital city, Ulaanbaatar. The political and economic progress Mongolia is experiencing since going democratic in 1989, is at the root of many social changes. These changes impact on the way people live their lives and experience their traditional culture. The nomadic way of life is disappearing steadily, as are the traditional ways people brought with them when migrating to the capital. Now even those adapted traditional ways are disappearing, and with them important connections with the past. But most importantly are the ever encroaching new housing developments. These are slowly replacing the ubiquitous ger districts of Ulaanbaatar. My aim is to not only record the way it was but also to photograph the changes that take place.

This is a long-term project that can be split up in several sections of attention:

  • Gandan ger district

  • Belkh ger district

  • gazar (yards)

  • shops, workshops, etc.

  • daily life

  • animals

  • people


The project is only in initial project design. One or more books are expected to result from this project. As yet there is no end date fixed.


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Photo book Monochrome Mongolia

Project name: Monochrome Mongolia
Status: Initial design.

Project progress
This project came about as an extension of the Shards of Mongolia blog and my many travels to Mongolia since August 2000. In this project I show Mongolia's capital city, Ulaanbaatar, in a series of monochrome photos.

The book is still in initial design. There is no expected release date. The project is progressing very slowly due to problems keeping the choice of photos consistent with the chosen project angle. This project might be scrapped in favour of other, better defined, projects.


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Photo book Shards of Mongolia - Exploring Mongolian city life

Project name: Shards of Mongolia - Exploring Mongolian city life
Status: 13/06/2006 final proof reading.

Project progress
This project came about as an extension of the Shards of Mongolia blog and my many travels to Mongolia since August 2000. In this project I show Mongolia's capital city, Ulaanbaatar, in a way most tourists are not familiar with.

As in previous projects, this project suffered from a lack of immediately available digital photos and a lack of knowledge of the publishing methods I chose. The book is now in final proof reading. The expected release date is late summer/early autumn 2006.


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Photo book Views of Amsterdam

Project name: Views of Amsterdam
Status: Completed. Book available



Amsterdam is an old city. It started its life as a tiny fisherman's village along the shores of the then still untamed river Amstel. Over time a dam and dikes were erected to protect the village and its hinterland. In the early 13th century, the village was awarded city rights. By that time, the village must already have been important enough for the local lords to grant such rights.

The city kept growing and expanding but it wasn't until the Age of Exploration that Amsterdam got an enormous boost. The discovery and exploration of the Americas and the subsequent discovery and exploration of the Far East lead to the formation of trade organizations and companies, the most important of which was the VOC, the Dutch East India Company. The influx of money through the trade in spices, tea, sugar, slaves and other commodities, increased the importance of Amsterdam as the de facto capital of Holland. The Golden Age of Holland, as the 16th and 17th century are called, not only saw Amsterdam bloom as the artistic centre of Western Europe but also as the technological, military and political centre. Amsterdam's historic city centre still shows clearly this power and wealth.

After a few centuries of stagnation, Amsterdam is now once again an energetic, vibrant city. Much has changed over those centuries but much has remained the same, most obviously the city's old centre, it's importance as the capital of Holland and as a hotbed for art and cultural expressions.

Amsterdam is for many visitors the first and often only glimpse of Holland. In this book I want to show some other glimpses of Amsterdam that most visitors hardly ever see: the daily life of the common man and woman. I hope that Views of Amsterdam will persuade you to come to Amsterdam, stay for some time and help you explore the city outside the beaten roads of the tourist areas.

Project progress
The idea for this project came from rummaging through my old photos. I ran into a large number of photos of Amsterdam that, after some consideration, seemed interesting enough to show to a larger audience. Additionally, I wanted to show a less common view of Amsterdam, weary of the widely abundant touristy shots. Amsterdam is more than canals, tulips and old houses.

This project suffered from a lack of immediately available digital photos. Most photos I selected were shot on film and, though they were scanned previously, were often not readily usable. Retrieving, (re)scanning and preparing the photos took an immense amount of time. Laying out the book, finding an arrangement that would work, and getting the book ready for a proof print also took a lot of time. All in all it took a good 18 months, with long interruptions due to unrelated activities, before the book was available for sale.

Main lesson from this project is that having all the digital files and photos ready, in the right size, with the right resolution, properly formatted, is important for a smooth work flow. Having to retrieve old film negatives, (re)scanning them and preparing them in an image editing program, consumes a lot of time and increases the chances of unavoidable but inconvenient interruptions and delays.

Views of Amsterdam


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