Lately I have been thinking hard about developing my own kind of photography and the harder I thought about it, the more I realised that it is vital for me to have a true connection to the areas where I take pictures. The Netherlands has some epic places where lots of people take pictures, like the Speulderbos, a beautiful mystical forest, Kinderdijk with its iconic mills, the fields with tulips in Spring and then there are those well known, beautiful lanes. I love these places, but I look at them with the eyes of a visitor, who takes in the beauty, but does not really connect to the soul of these areas. And so, I went back to my roots, I went back to the forests of my childhood, those that my family used to live in or close to and when I am there, I am not just a visitor appreciating the scene, I become one with my surroundings, making it much easier to take pictures that speak to me.
I love to see the pictures of epic places on 500px, they appear to always do very well and many end up in the most popular pictures. Iceland, Patagonia, Rocky Mountains, huge waterfalls....I really love them all, but what I have realised is that I really need to feel that connection to take good pictures. I need to tell my own story, even if that story is more about a micro landscape than about an epic place, apart from those that I do have a connection to of course. That is why my pictures will be telling the story of me, they tell the story of where I came from and where my heart belongs. They will tell the tales of micro landscapes, not the vast ones. I love conveying a sense of stillness and magic of those places that are all around us, capturing them in the right light that makes the reality of every day appear far, far away...no chaos, no news bulletins....just this all embracing serenity