My fav TEDxAmsterdam talks online!

On the 20th November, the very first TEDxAmsterdam took place at KIT. On their website they claim the following about the limited group of people who will be able to attend due to a strict invite only policy: “The diverse audience – CEOs, scientists, creatives, philanthropists – is almost as extraordinary as the speakers, who have included Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Frank Gehry, Paul Simon, Sir Richard Branson, Philippe Starck and Bono.” I think there was an extra category created for me, namely ‘lucky bastard’.

Anyway, they finally managed to post the talk I enjoyed the most, which is Bjarke Ingels’ ‘Yes is More‘. Here you’ll also find a beautiful performance by Amsterdam singer Karsu Dönmez, love the second song. One last talk I would really recommend is photographer Hans Aarsman’s about the mysterious ways of beauty in photography

Doel – the saddest place in Belgium

Silent protest on the Doel streets

Earlier this year I went to the free film festival Pluk de Nacht. One night I was there they showed a short documentary about Doel (“Doel leeft” by Tom Fassaert). It’s a little village in Belgium waiting to be demolished completely for the expansion of the Antwerp port. The documentary showed the last inhabitants that were unable or unwilling to move. Pretty depressing and surreal situation which the documentary showed perfectly.

Last weekend I went to Antwerp and via Twitter I was reminded about Doel. Took the car and in the middle of nowhere we found the town. Even more empty than in the documentary, it was a true ghost town. The one nice thing about it was the abundance of (street) art. Luckily I had my DSLR with me so in the short time I was there I quickly shot some pictures. Via a friend I found a great Flickr set of someone who has been there the same day I was. It’s still unclear when the town will be wiped off the map, but if you want to see it for yourself you’ll have to hurry up.

A story behind every picture

Cliche, but so true! This idea has inspired Justin McMurray to start pixtories: a website where people can submit their own picture with that special story behind it. There’s only one restriction, the one-liner that accompanies the picture shouldn’t be longer than 140 characters. This is what Justin has to say about it on his weblog:

“It’s based on the idea that everyone has their favourite photos but often the context of a photo – why it’s important or significant – is hidden. It might be a special moment, bring back a certain memory, have personal meaning or just be something you love for some reason. Pixtories is about revealing these stories which are limited to 140 characters to help sharpen your storytelling focus.”

"Ibiza. I was looking for a broom and I found a wedding dress. I couldn't stop laughing. It was a perfect day." Submitted by @saradotdub

The picture above is my favourite entry so far. Since I love the project I gave it a go myself. Want to add yours too? You can check the instructions here or send the photo + short story to pixtories@gmail.com.

We Want More

“We want more”, the words you (and I) scream between a band leaving the stage and going back on for the encore. Whatever happens backstage during this magic moment normally stays a secret. Photographer Daniel Cohen reveals a little bit with his work. At the two great Amsterdam venues Paradiso and Melkweg he shot musicians like The Kooks, Erykah Badu and dEUS when they came right of the stage and before going back on for the encore. On his website Daniel says the following:

It’s not meant to be a portrait, rather a capture of this moment backstage. This pure moment in time thrives with energy and vulnerability, a backstage moment of rest in the eye of the storm, while the crowd on the other side screams for more.

Erykah Badu in Paradiso, 2008 ©Daniel Cohen

Check out the exhibition from 1 October – 1 November in the Melkweg Galerie (Marnixstraat 409, open Wednesday till Sunday from 13.00 tot 20.00). On Friday 23th and Saturday 24th Daniel will be signing his book “We Want More”.

Fashion & Bikes

Photography + Blogs + Biking + Amsterdam + Fashion = a perfect combination of things I like! I’m an avid reader of fashion blogs such as The Sartorialist, Facehunter and Copenhagen Street Style. It becomes even better when biking is involved, for example Copenhagen Cycle Chic. That’s why it was great to see Garance Dore photographed lots of Amsterdam women, many with bikes, during her stay at the Amsterdam International Fashion Week (later all exhibitioned in Foam Photography Museum). Two weeks ago The Sartorialist also posted a series of pictures of NYC women with bikes, comparing them to the Amsterdam women on Garance’s blog. He is wisely not going into which style he likes more and I’m pretty biased, so what do you think?

Amsterdam lady photographed by ©Garance Dore

Richard Avedon in Foam (Amsterdam)

Last year I already heard about the exhibition ‘Avedon Photographs 1946-2004′ when I was in Paris. I was bummed since I couldn’t visit it there due to lack of time, but oh so happy when I found out its tour would also pass Amsterdam, the city I love and live in!

Foam, a wonderful, small photography museum in the inner centre of Amsterdam showcasing this exhibition, has the following to say about it:

It features over 200 works by Richard Avedon presented in chronological order, from his first photos made in Italy in 1946 to his final portraits, made shortly before his death in 2004. This is the first retrospective of his work to appear in the Netherlands.

As the exhibition takes a look at his career as a whole, the exhibition is a selection of Avedon’s most famous works as well as some hidden treasures. As I am only partly familiar with his work, I can’t wait to see more! You can too, from Feb 13th - May 13th 2009.

Richard Avedon Photograhs 1946-2004

Bob Dylan ©Richard Avedon

Poladroid – simple yet great

As I grew up with it, I too was sad to see that Polaroid earlier this year decided to stop with making polaroid film (after stopping making the cameras in 2007).  Much was written about it in newspapers, blogs and magazines. Dazed & Confused, one of the few magazines I have a subscription on, even did a 24 spread on Polaroid photography.

Who didn’t love the sound that the camera would make or the anticipation of waiting for the picture to develop in front of your eyes? No need to miss it anymore with the free application from Poladroid. You can drag and drop your photos onto the Poladroid “camera”, and after a few seconds it spits out your unprocessed print (with the original sound!). You can watch it develop and then save and print it. Pretty fun UI! For  cool examples, go to the special Poladroid Flickr group. See my experiment below :-)

Yours truly in Nice

Crazy Paul Smith fisheye camera

Online (can’t give credits since i truly don’t remember the website anymore), I came across a very cool fisheye Lomograph camera by Paul Smith! People who read my blog regularly know I have a weak spot for everything that has to do with Paul Smith, so of course it went straight on my Sinterklaas (Dutch equivalent of Santa Claus) wish list! Now I just can hope I was sweet enough the past year to deserve such a nice present :-)

Paul Smith - limited edition fisheye camera (Lomograph)

Cool retro detail is that the camera is not digital but analog, it uses 35mm lens and regular development. Also, for those who don’t know: a fisheye camera gives great distorted arty images. Some wonderful examples can be seen in this Flickr group. Getting all greedy? Here you can order one yourself!

Magnum Photos

I absolutely can’t sing but I can enjoy and admire people who are brilliant at it. The same goes for photography: I am a great fan of it, although I realise my talent is limited. Therefore I was even more amazed by the wonderful exhibition ‘Magnum 60 years’ in Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

This exhibition contained the work of the 83 photographers of the photo agency Magnum. This agency was founded by the following photographers; Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, George Rodger and David Seymour. They saw photography as the means to not only capture world events but also to make people think about it. The way they ran their agency was quite different at that time, ensuring full independency of the photographer by keeping the copyrights, deciding theirselves which pictures were used and how many etc.

Many of the pictures have become icons trough out the years, attributing to the almost heroic status of Magnum. Who for example doesn’t know the picture of the student standing in front of the tanks on Tiananmen Square (Stuart Franklin)? Or the picture by one of my favourites, Robert Capa, taken on D-Day?

If you want to enjoy more pictures you can either go to their website, it showcases a lot of work and make sure you check out their in motion part of the website. Given their 60th birthday, Magnum decided to bring out a 7 kg (!) weighing book called Magnum Magnum with a selection of their best and most important pictures throughout those 60 years of great photography. I received the book for my graduation, and it’s a journey to go through those pictures and history. Get it before it’s sold out!

World Press Photo 2008

I am a great fan of World Press Photo and this weekend, the winners of 2008 have been announced. Again, amazing photo’s with even more remarkable stories were selected, which all can be seen on the official World Press Photo website. I posted my three favourites here, although I could have easily posted many more (I am particularly fond of the nature section as well). By clicking on the photos I posted here, you can find out the story behind them and about their photographers. I can’t wait to see the exhibition that starts in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam on April 29. Excited about it and would like to see if the exhibition is coming to a place near you? Check this.