Portraits
I’m very happy to share that The Guardian published twelve pictures I took in Samburu, in the photo essay section of their website. The story that goes with all photographs, about worries over Samburu’s children who might not return to school as they are once again living a traditional way of life, was written by Saskia Houttuin.
See the whole photo essay here, on the website of The Guardian.
Click here to read more about our frontpage coverage about Samburu for NRC Handelsblad.
For ‘Gemeente Bergen’, a Dutch municipality in Northern Holland, I took several portraits of mayor Peter Rehwinkel. Rehwinkel, who has previously worked as a parlement member and as mayor of cities like Naarden and Groningen, had just been appointed as Bergen’s new mayor when COVID19 spread across The Netherlands. In the garden of Museum Kranenburgh, I took some portraits of him, which the municipality will use for official occasions. Some images have already been published by regional and national media.
For Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, I met up with Kivutha Kibwana, the Governor of Kenya’s Makueni County (and presidential candidate for the upcoming 2022 presidential elections in Kenya). NRC’s Africa correspondent Koert Lindijer wrote a story about Kibwana and his county leadership. Under his rule, Makueni became the county with the lowest corruption level in Kenya. That has a lot to do with the installation of the People’s Committee, which is involved with every government project in the county.
I spent a day with Governor Kibwana and his young team members, while he had meetings at his office and while he paid a vist to the Makueni Mother and Child Hospital, which counts as the finished flagship project over the Governor. Apart from health, the story of Koert also focuses on water management, and so I also took pictures of the Kwa Mbila Dam, where county residents can get water close to their homes, for a low, fixed price per filled jerrycan.
You can read the story about Governor Kibwana on the website of NRC Handelsblad. To read what NRC Handelsblad previously wrote about my Instagram page, click here.
I couldn’t be more proud of Saskia, who has won a prestigious Dutch award for talented journalists, the ‘Philip Bloemendal Prijs’! The jurors praised her ability to convey difficult stories through “clear texts and powerful imagery”. Saskia works as an Africa correspondent for Dutch media, like TV broadcaster RTL Nieuws, radio program Bureau Buitenland and newspaper Trouw. To read the whole jury report, click here! To check out her great appearance in TV show RTL Late Night, click here.
Last month, my pictures of my girlfriend Saskia and another Dutch Saskia, writer Saskia Noort, were published in several online / print media. Radio station NPO Radio 1 and newspapers NRC Handelsblad and Trouw published my portrait of Saskia Houttuin, which was also included in several press statements. Some of my photographs of Saskia Noort’s trip to Tanzania were shown in this NPO Radio 1 video segment and were used by De Nieuws BV and NPO online.
