On a coffee plantation in Guatemala, I met Irma. She told me with a sense of unfairness that her brother was allowed to go to school, while she had to stay home simply because she was a girl. She looked out at the world with the eyes of an old soul, as if she already knew three times as much about life as I did. On her shirt, she had drawn a little heart by hand.

It is precisely these kinds of encounters that make me pick up my camera. Injustice can make me furious. But when I sit directly across from someone, that anger shifts into something else: curiosity, respect, and tenderness. I want to understand what drives a person, how they live, and what keeps them going.

I have always had to fight for my own place. After various twists, turns, and rejections, I eventually graduated as a mime actor from the Amsterdam University of the Arts. Since 2018, I have been running Collectief Het Paradijs alongside three former classmates, and since 2026, I have served as the artistic director of Het Motorblok.

In theater, I have worked collaboratively for years. That process is deeply rewarding, but it also requires compromise. My photography, on the other hand, is entirely my own—from the initial spark of an idea to the final image. Yet both mediums share the same core. They are about play, about viewing the world through a different lens, and about forging a genuine connection.

That is why photography always begins with an introduction for me. A handshake, eye contact, a conversation. I want to truly see someone first, while also letting them see me. Only then do I ask if I may take their photo. On location, I give very few directions—perhaps asking someone to step slightly into the light, but little else. I prefer to observe what happens naturally: a wandering gaze, an unprompted posture, a quiet moment. In the studio, it becomes more of a theatrical interplay; I use stage costumes, build new settings, and work with natural day light or a single light source.

Color can sometimes feel overwhelming. I prefer to view the world in black and white. Without the distraction of color, focus naturally lands on what matters most: the light, the eyes, and the body. That atmosphere, that quiet interaction that is what I want you to feel in the photograph.

Following two exhibitions at the Hungry Eye Fair and Art-icon Paris, I want to deepen my documentary practice further, staying longer with a subject and exploring how a personal story connects to the broader conditions of life. Over the coming period, I will be working on two long-cherished social documentary projects focusing on salt extraction in Senegal and the origins of coffee in Ethiopia. In search of new, unfamiliar encounters.