"You have cancer." No one wants to hear those three words. Especially not twice. To say Karen Norton was 'Overwhelmed' when she first heard she had breast cancer is an understatement. As a wife, a mom to two young girls, and a part-time music pastor supporting her family, she already had enough on her plate. But then came those three ominous words.
'Overwhelmed' is a journey of one woman's life of health issues that seemed would never end. Would her world ever be the same again? Would she survive? Could she ever be the person God wanted her to be in this life? Would she continue to struggle with health issues and the emotions related to the changes? Would she understand why God tested her with health issues?
A rather unusual experience. Not to be behind the camera but in front. Transformed from being the photographer into being the model. The reason was an interview with me a national newspaper in the Netherlands is going to publish. About my Henny-project: the woman I am documenting now for over 35 years. The photographer in charge is currently probably the most famous in the Netherlands. His name is Joost van den Broek and indeed, he makes stunning pictures. He is specialized in portraits he still makes on film with a Mamiya C330 camera on a Manfrotto tripod. When his portraits are published in a newspaper or magazine, the eyes immediately are drawn to it and the mind and heart become intrigued and fascinated.
Therefore a most interesting experience to be photographed by this gentleman photographer to observe how the hell he manages to make such fabulous portraits.
It was educational and surprising.
Joost van den Broek seems not to be nervous. We first went to a restaurant where he ordered hot chocolate milk with cream on top and a delicious apple pie also covered by sweet cream. He seemed not to be in a hurry although he had been carefully studying the space we were in.
From my experience I was concluding the restaurant was not a good location: mainly because it was too dark inside.
After slowly drinking the chocolate milk and eating the apple pie and chatting about life and photography he decided the moment had come. And to my uttermost amazement he selected the darkest corner in the restaurant as the place to make the portrait. He used his Mamiya C330 on a tripod although the shutter speed was not very slow. Besides, he used a Nikon D3s with a F1,2 lens shooting from his large beautiful hands at random.
I have no clue what he has made: haven’t seen any results yet. Later he made pictures outside as well on two different locations but it seemed this was not because he was doubtful about the portraits he had been shooting inside.
Of course I took the opportunity to make portraits of this immensely talented and pure photographer. He had no objections and posed freely and easy.
"What The World Has Never Seen" is currently in production with Michel and his team travelling around the world. To keep up with the latest from Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and the project "What The World Has Never Seen", please visit his blog at:
In June 2012 I will give once more a Masterclass in the romantic village of Le Gorvello in Brittany, France. It is a special Masterclass because I am not the Master: the participants are the Masters. This concept is based on the wisdom that one can find what one needs to know inside oneself. Things that are learned through imposing, as so called Masters do, makes one the trained monkey in the circus. But things inside oneself that are discovered and developed, are major steps in becoming a more complete human being and therefore a photographer with important things to communicate, also of value for others.
The Masterclass that starts on June 18, 2012 is already booked half full. One of the preparations for the participants of the Masterclass is to work in the coming months on an interesting portfolio. That can be shown and discussed with the other participants and can serve as a starting point for the week of intensive photographing in June in Le Gorvello.
There are now already participants who ask my advice what to chose as a subject for their portfolio. Like the participant who came up with two possible ideas: "Journey of Red Shoes" and "Feeling like Red Shoes". Great ideas: it makes you wonder what kind of pictures will be in a portfolio having the title “Journey of Red Shoes” or "Feeling like Red Shoes". And this is very important: to raise curiosity even before a spectator has seen one image! However, the photographer must be smart in choosing a title that will guide into making interesting pictures.
For example, “Journey of Red Shoes” implies that not only has there to be red shoes somehow in the image, but also that they must be related to making a journey. The same for "Feeling like Red Shoes": the shoes have to be in the image and something with emotion as well. That makes it more complicated and forces to think before to make pictures and that is not always so good. The danger is that what we will see in the images is artificial, rational, scientific almost. As it comes from the mind. It will be hard to make pictures with such a theme from the intuition, the spontaneity or even the feelings.
The solution is always the same: simplify. For magic to happen things must be simple. The suggestion to this photographer has been to drop the “journey” and the “feeling like” in the titles. To have as a starting point only “Red Shoes”. This opens many more possibilities: maybe the Red Shoes make a journey. Maybe they make us feel like them. Maybe the Red Shoes metaphorically show anger, beauty, sexuality, humor. By making the title as simple as possible, the playing field becomes immensely more bigger.
"What The World Has Never Seen" is currently in production with Michel and his team travelling around the world. To keep up with the latest from Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and the project "What The World Has Never Seen", please visit his blog at:
An emotional situation with people and you are there as a photographer. The question then is whether you document that event in the most optimal way or do you use that event as a way to manifest yourself as a photographer.
This question came on my plate when working on my new book about Henny. A woman I am documenting for over 35 years. There are two ways of documenting with photography: one is to use Henny and her dramatic situation as a way to show how original and unique I am as a photographer. To put a self made photographic sauce over her reality. Later, the spectators will see Henny in the pictures, but most of all we see the style and specifics of the way the photographer made the pictures. The other way is to go as close as possible with the photography to the subject. To merge and unite and show how the person really lives. Nothing between it.
In the end, this is all about ego. Does the photographer have the urge to show the own ego through a very specific style. Or can the photographer let go of the ego and put the photography in the total service of the subject.
We live in a free world and every photographer can do as pleases. But what I see is that there are curators of museums and photo festivals working on documentary photography who have no clue about this fundamental issue. They have big egos themselves and are constantly looking for and promoting forms of photography that confirms theirs and the photographers ego. The subjects of the documentary photography are usually every time the same: it is the specifics that are different. Pity on the persons in the pictures: they are not in the exhibition for who they are and what they do and what happened to them: they are there for the glory of the curators. And for the photographers to manifest their originality. Because they need to feel important. Confirm to the whole world their existence. It is parasitical. Disrespectful towards the persons photographed and usually uninteresting.
For me in the new photo book only Henny and her family is important. Every situation that is interesting I try to document in a way that later the spectator comes as close as possible to what really happened. Avoiding to have anything in between Henny and the spectator. To be as efficient and as neutral as a photographer can be. You and Henny as intimate as possible. Not you and me through Henny.
Currently, an international and very expensive Masterclass of documentary photography is organized in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. Curators and photographers with big egos stand their behind lecterns or sit at the head of a square table preaching to the students how to be unique and original. They make the students believe they should fit in their theory and learn how to have the biggest ego possible in documentary photography. For this old fashioned and conservative approach the students pay thousands of Dollars...
I believe that to make documentary photography that brings people close together, a photographer must first learn not to be a photographer but to be a human being. A man or a woman not needing to manifest a disturbed ego. But a photographer that is able to unite with the persons that eventually will be in front of the camera. A photographer who is there as a human being in the first place, opening up, sharing, accomplishing togetherness and when it is the time, to make pictures.
"What The World Has Never Seen" is currently in production with Michel and his team travelling around the world. To keep up with the latest from Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and the project "What The World Has Never Seen", please visit his blog at:
When a photographer gets a job, there are others who decide what to do. In a way that makes it easy. There are no doubts because there is a beginning and an end. A perfect circle. However, an artist photographer is an explorer. Nobody tells her or him where to go and why. It is always based on a self created and imposed concept and then it is like parachuting from a high flying airplane in the darkness of the night: when will land touch the soles?
First I was sitting during one long night in a KLM airplane during 10 hours to travel from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Bangkok, Thailand. Next, I was flying from Bangkok to Chiang Mai in Thailand. Followed by a bus ride of over 4 hours from Chiang Mai to the village of Soppong. Today, from Soppong, sitting on the back of a light motorbike called Honda Dream, Thai producer “Sunny” and me, we drove more than 2 hours into the mountainous jungle.
During that journey, going up and going down, seeing the beautiful jungle pass by, seeing people working in the rice fields, seeing birds flying from one tree to another, seeing the river finding its way between the high mountains, I came to wonder what the heck I was doing there. Obviously traveling to somewhere but I had no clue where “Sunny” was taken me. We went higher and higher into the mountains, the road getting worse by the mile. If at that moment a journalist had landed by parachute in front of our Honda Dream and had asked me where I was, I would not have known what to reply. Well, obviously I was in Thailand and somewhere in the northeast. Clearly close to the border with Burma because at one point 5 large Army trucks loaded with soldiers and their impressive guns passed by to the nearby area of possible international trouble. The road was bad and often steep and slippery because of the gravel.
I was not wearing a helmet.
An inner voice was asking on behalf of the Department of Security, Survival and Foolishness, based somewhere in my brains, if that really was such a good idea to sit on a light motorbike on a slippery and dangerous road out in nowhere although somewhere in Thailand but close to Burma. The good point the inner voice made was, what for hell’s sake was driven myself to go to this far corner of the world and this in a total irresponsible way. Who could deny it was not a survival trip at all but more likely making gambling in a casino look like a way to become an easy millionaire?
But then another thought flashed when the Honda Dream hit another pothole and this one was that a photo project was performed and persons were to be found that can show what nobody has seen. In big cities this means doing intensive research for weeks and in the countryside it means making miles and miles to reach the end where a man or a woman explains what it is. What in their case it is what the world has never seen.
Did this trip, possibly considered as absurd and irresponsible, bring a result that justified the effort? That is the beauty of life. A man can fall in love, which is a reckless thing to do, but it is the way to find the one.
"What The World Has Never Seen" is currently in production with Michel and his team travelling around the world. To keep up with the latest from Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and the project "What The World Has Never Seen", please visit his blog at:
All over the world people are busy making pictures and many of them have the ambition to become professional. Either as a commercial or as a fine arts photographer. Whether these ambitions are fulfilled depend on many things. One must have determination, willpower and talent. But even then, the context in which a person lives has a strong influence as well in how far dreams can come true.
Context in Europe is very favorable and in the United States, Japan and many other countries as well. Young people with ambitions and the other necessary ingredients can make it there and become successful.
But imagine a young woman in Iran these days. Like Ziba Maghreti.
She has the ambition to become a fine arts photographer and has been accepted as a student in a photography school in Switzerland. However, her country is being boycotted so Ziba cannot get the travel documents to go to Switzerland.
Living with her parents in Teheran, Iran, she is in deep frustration now because she realizes that her future is not going to be in sync with her dreams. She does make pictures though and when we see these pictures we feel with her what she is going through.
"What The World Has Never Seen" is currently in production with Michel and his team travelling around the world. To keep up with the latest from Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and the project "What The World Has Never Seen", please visit his blog at:
Recently one of the television channels in the Netherlands showed a documentary about one of the most personal aspects of the personal life. It is an activity we sometimes perform that starts with an M and ends with an N. M...N happens when we are in the mood or feel the urge and most of the time it is exercised in private. It is a subject we never discuss--not even with our closest friends.
Television channels have as a primary purpose to try to attract as many viewers as possible. Because the golden rule is that the more viewers there are, the more money they can make. In the search and hunt for high audience numbers any subject becomes a possibility: even things we usually keep absolutely private. Under the pretext of cracking a taboo and demonstrating openness and transparency the most delecate aspects of our lives are made public.
The television channel from the Netherlands had an easy going and hip presenter who used an old tactic: he went out into the street with a cameraman holding a microphone in his hands approaching innocent passers by asking them bluntly: when did you recently m...e? Of course the persons approached got embarrassed which was for the presenter a reason to prove his point what a taboo it is... While he himself never explained what was his policy and frequency of m...g.
As is usual for journalism on TV, exceptions on the rule and extremes were tracked and highlighted. A man in Tokyo who is world champion and a priest in Peru who explains young men they should avoid doing it if they don't want to become a cripple.
After 30 minutes most viewers of this TV program will have wondered what they had learned. And what sense it all made.
In photography a similar phenomenon is going on. Photojournalists doing their best to find taboos and presenting them as a kind of shock therapy. Nothing is sacred and the more extreme the better. The purpose of all this is not to make a better world. The true reason is, like with the TV channel, to attract attention at any price. The urge to try to make money and fame while a delicate social structure that has been operating perfectly for many generations is broken down.
"What The World Has Never Seen" is currently in production with Michel and his team travelling around the world. To keep up with the latest from Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and the project "What The World Has Never Seen", please visit his blog at:
Besides performing worldwide the photo project “What the world has never seen”, I am also working on another project. This project started in 1975: I followed with my camera for months a young girl of 16 that was working in a biscuit factory. It resulted in a photo book, published in 1976, showing how this girl lived and worked. Titled: “Neem nou Henny”.
Over the years I have continued to follow this woman called Henny and by now 5 photo books have been published about her most interesting life. These days, when in Holland, I photograph her again for a new photo book that will be published in the Fall of 2012 and this will cover 36 years of her life. Probably nobody in the world has been documented by a photographer for that long and this published in 6 books.
Henny is in her second marriage and has in total 6 children. One of her sons, who is 19 now, is autistic. His name is Daany. His autism limits him in his social life: he can?t be with groups of people, lacks empathy, doesn?t communicate much and is extremely indolent. Daany still lives with his mother in the small house they have.
Most of his time he spends in his own room. Laying on his bed he watches violent films, does computer war games, makes SF-monsters and trains his body. Daany has no job: the one he had he lost. He doesn?t go to school or to another form of education. All his time he spends in his room.
Over the last 5 months that I visit Henny?s home, I have tried to get a connection with Daany and this became successful. He eventually accepted me and we were having conversations in his room. He even allowed me to make pictures of him and here we present a selection. One day I asked Daany: “You spend all your time in this room watching TV and I wonder if you really like this”.
He replied: “Yes, because outside this room it is hell”.
"What The World Has Never Seen" is currently in production with Michel and his team travelling around the world. To keep up with the latest from Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and the project "What The World Has Never Seen", please visit his blog at:
We have a photo project called “What the world has never seen”. It is currently performed worldwide. Of course, it is being promoted and this results in responses. Persons that learn what exactly “What the world has never seen” is about and take the courageous initiative to send a message expressing their opinion.
This is one of the exciting aspects of the project: the interaction. Men and women triggered to share what comes to their minds and hearts when they learn about “What the world has never seen”. They send messages to
because they became involved, connected and inspired.
Like this special person from Turkey. Not perfect in English but making clear the point anyway:
I thougt that learning somebody’s unknown secret would make me feel learning about myself because there are also something like this about me that I dont want to tell and in a community I feel like I forget these things and so feel like I am another person than I am alone. When I read your news I felt that knowing someone else’s secret would make me feel closer to myself. I hope that I could explain myself to you and I also hope that you don’t find me absurd.
What this person writes is very fundamental. That some of us are representing themselves in public in a way we are not. The Turkish person indicates we tend to forget and don’t want to know who we are when we are alone.
Another response came in recently. Writing:
If you don’t want people to see the pictures you have taken, that’s fine. But to keep going on and on about your secret book and how you’re going to keep it a big secret sounds like a bunch of little elementary kids who just formed a secret club. Grow Up!
The most basic objective of the project “What the world has never seen” is to initiate a public debate about intimacy and privacy. Every contribution to this public conversation is of value. “What the world has never seen” is for all of you. Say what you think.
"What The World Has Never Seen" is currently in production with Michel and his team travelling around the world. To keep up with the latest from Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and the project "What The World Has Never Seen", please visit his blog at:
The young, talented and dynamic designer Derk Bettonviel has come with a result for the photo project "What the world has never seen". He designed the book and right here at this very website it is made public.
It is another important step in this exciting project that is so innovative and different.
There are more developments with "What the world has never seen" to report on.
Last week the photo editor called of the in-flight magazine of one of the major airlines. She wanted to pulish the results of "What the world has never seen". A pre-publication of the photo book. In her magazine that has 1 million readers.
However, "What the world has never seen" is a project that is about privacy and intimacy. Participants show of their private life what the world has never seen. These images are published in the photo book that has an edition of only 200 copies. Therefore, the images can be seen by only those 200 owners of the book. The idea is that not everything should be made public. There should be specific information about persons that remains among family and friends. It should not be placed on a platform for everybody to see.
We had to say no to the photo editor of this magazine: in spite of the possibility to reach 1 million readers with "What the world has never seen" and in spite of the substantial amount of money a publication would have paid.
Of course, it was proposed to do a background story in the magazine about "What the world has never seen". With pictures on which one can see how the images for the book are made without that it is being revealed what it is what participants actually show. But the disappointment with the photo editor was too big.
Then a lady sent a message asking if we would organize meetings where the photo book of What the world has never seen" can be seen. A group of people coming together and getting the opportunity to open the locked book and see the images of what the world has never seen. This we will definitely not do. Producer Vanya Pieters rightfully mentioned, what if among those people is a journalist? Who sees the pictures during that meeting and then the next day writes the whole story with all the details in the newspaper?
Another journalist, from a photo magazine, requested yesterday to have a copy of the book sent to him in order to write and publish a review. This is a common practice. At home, they must have a big book case with beautiful books they received for free and the price to pay was to write a few words in a magazine. But also this we don't do--we don't send books for free to journalists. We don't need the book to be reviewed and see the privacy and intimacy of the persons portrayed molested and corrupted.
And there was this message from Martin Parr. The English photographer with a high reputationa nd a central figure in the world of fine arts photography. He wrote about the project "What the world has never seen":
"What The World Has Never Seen" is currently in production with Michel and his team travelling around the world. To keep up with the latest from Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and the project "What The World Has Never Seen", please visit his blog at:
At the University of Leiden in the Netherlands are the MA Film and Photographic Studies. One aspect of this education is the research of innovative methods of presenting photography.
The producer for Istanbul of my photo project “What the world has never seen”, Ms. Vanya Pieters, is one of the students of these MA Film and Photographic Studies at the University of Leiden. She was asked by one of the professors, Mr. Bas Vroege, to give a lecture for him and the other students about her experiences being involved in the innovative photo project “What the world has never seen”.
One issue is of course that Ms. Pieters cannot explain what are the stories of the Istanbul-participants. What it is that the world has never seen. What they show. However, Ms. Pieters was instrumental in finding these persons, has heard their stories in person, witnessed how they were photographed and saw later back in the Netherlands the contact sheets.
So, what can Ms. Pieters say about this all?
This is her statement:
“I have been deeply involved making the images in Istanbul, Turkey. I can very well detect in every image the personal approach of the visualization of the issues that the world has never seen. I was very surprised how Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski managed, in the short time there usually was to photograph, to come to a unique and original visual idea of the story the participant told. Also because of the personal strong relationship I had with the participants, is this emphasized. The resulting images are strong with a mysterious impact that connect well to the stories the participants told. These images appealed immediately from the contact sheets that I saw. I can't wait to see them printed in the upcoming exclusive photo book."
There are only two persons, besides myself, who have seen the images and heard the stories of the photo project “What the world has never seen”. One is Ms. Vanya Pieters and the other person is Mr. Pieter Eeltink. Mr. Eeltink is the supervisor of “What the world has never seen” and therefore entitled to see the results.
He says:
“I had the privilege to hear the stories and see the contact sheets of the results from Istanbul, Turkey. Every picture is wonderful: they made me emotional. How great it is that I am involved with this project.”
Meanwhile designer Derk Bettonviel has finished the design of the photo book: unique as it is equipped with a padlock.
Next column an image of this exceptional book will be presented here.
"What The World Has Never Seen" is currently in production with Michel and his team travelling around the world. To keep up with the latest from Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and the project "What The World Has Never Seen", please visit his blog at:
Recently a successful fashion chain of shops, called H&M, offered very special clothes for sale. They were designed by Versace, who is a big name and has a reputation by fashion lovers.
People were lining up in front of the H&M shops before they were even open. And later, within a short time, all the Versace clothes were sold.
But a phenomenon occurred shortly after. Within hours after the last Versace clothes were all sold out in the H&M shops, the first ones were offered on E-Bay. Which explained that certain persons had bought Versace clothes in the H&M shops particularly and intentionally to offer them for a higher price a little later on E-Bay.
Last week a selected group of persons have been informed that the exclusive photo book of my project “What the world has never seen” can be pre-ordered now. It is a unique photo book in a limited edition of 200 and the photographs in this book are not published anywhere else. No newspaper, no magazine, no exhibition will be allowed to show what is in this exceptional photo book. The only way to know and see the results of “What the world has never seen” is by getting hold of one of the 200 copies.
This photo book is unique in another way as well. It is locked by a padlock. A steel pin goes through a hole in the book: on the top a serious padlock. This means that to open the photo book, one needs the key. One of the 200 owners therefore can decide who actually can see the content of “What the world has never seen”. Even when it is shining on the coffee table, visitors will not be able to open the book and see what the world has never seen unless the owner decides that the visitor belongs to the exclusive group of persons to know.
This photo book will cost € 499 but when ordered before January 1, 2012, € 399. A collector will transfer € 200 and within weeks the key belonging to his or her book will be sent. After the book is ready, Fall 2012, the second part is transferred, and the locked book is delivered.
Obviously, the signed and numbered photo book “What the world has never seen” is having a high collector's value. For two reasons. One is that only 200 copies are made. Second is that nowhere else the images in the book can be seen.
This means that the value of this book will go up in the course of time. Like the Versace clothes from the H&M shops: in one year the first “What the world has never seen” photo book will be offered on E-Bay.
"What The World Has Never Seen" is currently in production with Michel and his team travelling around the world. To keep up with the latest from Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and the project "What The World Has Never Seen", please visit his blog at:
In Istanbul is a private photography school called the “Galata Photography Academy”. A modern facility in the old part of the European town near the famous Galata tower. It is not a really big school but it has a nice atmosphere of serious and passioned teachers and apprentices.
Last night I gave there a lecture and it was one of the better ones. The story of the lecture is each time the same but if there are good questions coming from the audience a debate and conversation develops and that was the case yesterday. Many questions came about the sequences and about the Henny project. Several questions had a build-in opinion and those are the best. Dialogues developed and common conclusions made. It was a very good decision of the “Galata Photography Academy” to invite me to come and give a lecture. A school is a closed entity being lead by a team of teachers.
This means that the students are constantly under the influence of the range of the knowledge and wisdom of their teachers. How wider that range of the teacher is, the better it is of course for the student. But by inviting photographers from outside the closed entity, the range is tremendously expanded. Suddenly the students are confronted with images, opinions, approaches, concepts and ideas they possibly never heard of.
The “Galata Photography Academy” had the flexibility to open their program to give the students the opportunity to get to know the work of a visiting photographer. I know of Universities were they teach photography where they never invite photographers to come and give lectures. They claim they do not have the money for it and/or because it doesn't fit in the educational program they designed and dogmatically stick to. In those cases it is the management consisting of just a few persons who decide to limit the range of knowledge that is offered to the students.
I am in favor of a policy like they have at the “Galata Photography Academy” and the “Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Photography Department” both in Istanbul, Turkey. The managements there see how valuable it is to open the doors and the educational program for visiting photographers. For them they give the floor and guess what: the students come in great numbers, are fascinated and inspired.
"What The World Has Never Seen" is currently in production with Michel and his team travelling around the world. To keep up with the latest from Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and the project "What The World Has Never Seen", please visit his blog at:
In Istanbul, Turkey, people like to make pictures. Very often we see men and women with big cameras pointing somewhere and making pictures. Even more often we see people making pictures with their portable telephone. I imagine that all these persons like to make pictures. That they have fun clicking away. Enjoy being in front of a part time photographer with a historical building, a fountain or the Eiffel Tower behind them. Have their family and friends come closer in their heart by immortalizing them.
It is a wonderful thing that photography still plays a that vital role in the life of many people. Somehow a moment recorded remains important. But we may wonder what happens with all these images. Like a person who makes pictures with a mobile phone. Is that person later downloading those images into a computer? And somehow organizing to have prints made of them? And mounting those prints in a photo album?
It is a fascinating question to ask ourselves what is happening with all those images made these days. Especially because every possible answer is speculation. No one really knows. That is fine: why bother? Except that we may not want to have the situation of us making pictures all the time and everywhere and of everybody, without properly keeping and storing them. So that in the future our next generations will not face a regrettable circumstance of not being able to see who we were and how we lived.
Because we didn't properly stored and archived and printed the pictures we make today. Is digital photography therefore drowning and eliminating the historical context in which analog photography always played a significant and constructive role? Will we be forgotten in the future because they can't see us?
How about a company where people automatically send their pictures too. A mobile phone and even a digital camera can be permanently connected to this company and each time a picture is made it instantly is send by Internet to the account held with this company. When still alive the customer can check the collection of his or her images and decide to forward them or have them printed.
But in 50 years or 100 years, a great grand child can access the collection of Uncle Thomas or Aunt Betsy and see how they lived. Maybe nothing is lost if we are forgotten in the future. Maybe it is not that important if they can't know many years from now how we lived and who we were. But nevertheless, it will give many people living now a good feeling if they make themselves historically relevant.
Digital photography has come and taken over but don't we want eternity?
"What The World Has Never Seen" is currently in production with Michel and his team travelling around the world. To keep up with the latest from Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and the project "What The World Has Never Seen", please visit his blog at:
In 1976 I photographed a 16-year old biscuit factory worker for several months almost every day. It was a girl called Henny and she was very expressive and outspoken. Many of the pictures I made of her were published in a photo book titled “Neem nou Henny” in 1977.
As of then, I have continued to document the life of Henny. Every 5 or so years, again during months, I would photograph her and publish this in a new photo book. By now there are 5 photo books on Henny and these days, when in Holland, I am photographing her and her family again. Documenting her fascinating life.
The 6th book on her will be published next year, 2012, and this book will cover in pictures 34 years of her life. Henny is probably the only woman in the world that has been photographed professionally for so long with the results published in photo books. Of course, when the 6th book has been published, there is a high probability that in five or ten years, again she will be followed by me with my camera for a 7th book.
Recently I truly started to understand how unique this project is. But came to the thinking that I also could see my Henny project as a foundation. A starting point. For a real unique project.
This idea came to me because I am very much in touch with the younger generation of Dutch photographers. One of them, Ms. Inge van Iersel, was recently presented on www.zone-10.com, But there are several more who are highly talented, devoted, passioned and reliable. How would it be to ask specific young photographers in a few years time, to document one of the children of Henny? That a young photographer links with one of Henny's kids, develop a deep friendship and for years and years document that child?
The same could happen for the grandchildren of Henny: when they start living independently, link them to a very good and human photographer and document their lives for a very long time. In this way a truly unique document would be created: one family documented by several photographers for 50 years, 100 years or even more.
I have informed several persons in the world of Dutch photography about this plan. If they like it, they will take responsibility and eventually organize a linking between a child of Henny and a young talented photographer.
Question or comment? Contribute to this column by sending an e-mail to:
"What The World Has Never Seen" is currently in production with Michel and his team travelling around the world. To keep up with the latest from Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and the project "What The World Has Never Seen", please visit his blog at:
These days life is in Amsterdam. In the most famous part of the center called “De Jordaan”. Fabulous to live for its beautiful architecture but especially for the warm social environment people create in this part of town. In the center of “De Jordaan” is a tower called “De Westertoren”. Built in 1637 it houses a wonderful carillon that plays a tune every 15 minutes. And each hour and each half an hour a bell indicates the time.
Now, pay special attention to this: of course, for example at 7 o'clock in the morning, the bell sounds seven times. But how many times do you think will the bell sound at 7.30 hours? Will it again sound seven times or eight times?
That is a choice.
At 7.30 hours the time is not closer to eight than it has left behind seven. It is exactly in between, so it could be seven, it could be eight. Some person responsible for this has made a choice. At 7.30 hours the bell rings eight times.
That person must have been an optimist. Someone who looks ahead and is not looking back.
With photography we also live in a time between 7 and 8. For several reasons. The economic situation is not very favorable for photography to flourish. There are more photographers than the market requires. Many people are able to make pictures now with digital cameras who before would call a professional photographer. Possibilities to publish books commercially have almost vanished. Budgets of museums are too low to have frequent and valuable exhibitions.
That is the 7 part of the current situation. However, it is much better to copy the person that programmed the bell of “De Westertoren” and look at 8. In spite of the 7, one can look at the positive sides of where photography is now. In spite of recession, vulgarization and what not more, there still are tremendous possibilities. To focus on them keeps the road open to enjoy the great excitement one can experience with photography.
To the persons who publicly emphasize the negative aspects of the situation in which photography and photographers are now, the question should be asked: which finger do you think have we reserved for you?
Question or comment? Contribute to this column by sending an e-mail to:
"What The World Has Never Seen" is currently in production with Michel and his team travelling around the world. To keep up with the latest from Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and the project "What The World Has Never Seen", please visit his blog at:
We have been waiting a long time but now it is there. Three dimensional images we can see without wearing silly glasses. We can buy now television sets that show three dimensional images in a more or less natural way.
Also in movie theaters more and more three dimensional fims are being shown. And near the Red Square in Moscow is an exhibition of photo-landscapes now of which several images are presented in 3D.
It is a process but we know for sure that more and more people will get used to see 3D images. It is entering the daily life. More and more people will buy 3D TVs and soon we will be able to also have computers with a 3D image and laptops and mobile phones having three dimensional screens.
The question that comes to mind when we observe this development is where this leaves photography? Are we seeing the slow death of traditional two dimensional imaging? Will we see in the near future photo-exhibitions that consist of 3D images? And will therefore 2D images not be interesting anymore?
I believe it is not a good thing to have any speculations about this matter. It is without any value and importance to make any predictions. One can say we see photography, as it is now, disappearing. Or one can claim that photography, as it is now, will always live and glory.
Both statements can become true. Or maybe even another truth can arise in the future.
One important thing to do as a photographer is to closely watch what is going on. Not only technically concerning new cameras and 3D images. But also to closely watch how the audience is transforming its visual consumption by new technological advances. And to be flexible to change in time and adapt the new techniques and new ways of consumers' visual consumption.
Question or comment? Contribute to this column by sending an e-mail to:
"What The World Has Never Seen" is currently in production with Michel and his team travelling around the world. To keep up with the latest from Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and the project "What The World Has Never Seen", please visit his blog at:
The photo project “What The World Has Never Seen” is very unusual. This is because the results will not be published widely.
In general, any photographer has as a purpose to have his or her pictures seen by as many persons as possible. When that is achieved, it is called success. And creates income. A photographer wants to see his or her pictures in a newspaper, a magazine, on a website, in a book. a museum, a gallery. This is the natural instinct: better millions of viewers than thousands, let alone hundreds.
With “What The World Has Never Seen” it is exactly the opposite and this, as a photographer, is a very unique experience. To invest a lot of money, to travel the world, to look with producers for subjects, to photograph them as best as possible and then to hide the results from the general public. It is an unusual paradox.
Photography has always been seen by me as a medium that allows innovation. Than can be used in new and experimental ways.
Photography has never been seen as a medium that is powerful in its message when old tricks are repeated in a new version. That only degrades it to visual entertainment.
True excitement with photography can only be found when unconventional approaches are applied and the more experimental the better.
This is certainly the case with “What The World Has Never Seen”. You probably never will see the results...
The only way to see what the world has never seen is to get hold of one of the 100 books that will be made of the results of all the trips, researches and extraordinary meetings.
But now we have come up with a new idea! Together with Vanya Pieters, the Istanbul producer and Anatoly Melnikow, the Moscow producer, the idea was born to design a concept for an exhibition of the images of “What The World Has Never Seen”. It is based on an aspect of the book: this will be locked and one needs a key to open it to see the pages. This is also the plan for the exhibition. In a museum a space will have all the images and texts of “What The World Has Never Seen”. To enter this hall one must open a door: but this door is locked.
One needs to have the key...
The museum makes 100 keys and sends these to loyal and faithful friends of the museum. They can came to the museum and use the key to open the door to the space where they can see the images and texts of “What The World Has Never Seen”. Next, returned home, they can consider to give the key to a good friend of which it is thought it would be good if he or she also sees the images and texts of “What The World Has Never Seen”. In this way the 100 keys will travel among a large group of privileged persons able to see the show.
It is a way to have an exhibition of “What The World Has Never Seen” and still keeping it a private, exclusive and intimate project.
Any museum curator that has jumped off his or her chair reading about this idea should immediately contact me.
Question or comment? Contribute to this column by sending an e-mail to:
"What The World Has Never Seen" is currently in production with Michel and his team travelling around the world. To keep up with the latest from Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and the project "What The World Has Never Seen", please visit his blog at:
These days of us, has it ever been so easy to publish a photo book? We upload images to an on line printing company and soon after we have the book at home. Of splendid quality, thank you Mr. Blurb.
But isn't a book to be a multiplied object? One thing made in thousands to distribute around the world? If that is the ambition, the dance is different. There needs to be serious money and often a publisher too. To publish a photo book is a long, long way with many hurdles to take without knowing it will come to break even and beyond.
Experienced photographers who have been there will advise debutantes and beginners: do not even think of going there. Because it is an exhausting fight that has a low chance of winning.
Of course this is the perfect situation for innovative photographers shining as entrepreneurs. When something is not possible, the challenge is to find the new possibility.
It is true that photo books, as commercial objects, are dead. The conclusion is that most people don't buy them anymore. And that production costs are too high to sell them for a reasonable price to the few diehards who still want to fill their bookshelves.
The right attitude for a brave photographer is to conclude: yes, photo books are dead. EXCEPT MINE. MY photo book will find an audience and will sell and will get reviews in the newspaper and will be a monument in the history of photography.
This is pure megalomania. Until the photo book is published indeed. Then you are the hero. Like Kennedy saying to go to the moon and eventually Armstrong landing there. Shoot your rocket therefore to the target. Your book: One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.
Contribute to this column by sending an e-mail to:
"What The World Has Never Seen" is currently in production with Michel and his team travelling around the world. To keep up with the latest from Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski and the project "What The World Has Never Seen", please visit his blog at:
One of the most extreme photographers that I know is Ms. Inge van Iersel. A 24 year old woman from the south of Holland that finished her studies at the Art School St. Joost in Breda, Holland last Spring. She was mentioned in last week's column and yesterday she won the prestigious Photo Academy Award 2011: the most important prize a young photographer can win in the Netherlands.
She is such an extreme photographer because she is obsessed, pathological, narcissistic, egocentric, extravert and humanistic. In other words: the kind of photographer you want to have around. To be close with because she lives life in a now or never way and documents with her camera every step she makes. Resulting in fascinating photography only lunatics make.
We can divide her photography in two parts. One is her social reportage photography. For example, she followed a family that lived opposite from her for a longer period of time and published this in an astonishing and impressive photo book, called: “I love you forever”.
It is such a good book because each picture shows how she was very close to the members of the family. A closeness rarely a photographer manages to achieve. This happened obviously because she is not running away for any of her own emotions.
In her autonomous work, the second part of her photography, she is merciless towards herself. Documenting her struggle with effects of her food disorders and relationships with boyfriends. And continually and obsessively making self portraits.
These pictures play an important role for her to understand her life, her emotions, her personal process of psychological growing. And from this closeness to the core of life, where emotions burn, she can also focus on the one of other's: like the family she documented in all their emotional purity.
When she participated in the Masterclass I gave recently in France, she took the opportunity to make some portraits of yours truly. Click HERE to see these photographs.
A rather unusual experience. Not to be behind the camera but in front. Transformed from being the photographer into being the model. The reason was an interview with me a national newspaper in the Netherlands is going to publish. About my Henny-project: the woman I am documenting now for over 35 years. The photographer in charge is currently probably the most famous in the Netherlands. His name is Joost van den Broek and indeed, he makes stunning pictures. He is specialized in portraits he still makes on film with a Mamiya C330 camera on a Manfrotto tripod. When his portraits are published in a newspaper or magazine, the eyes immediately are drawn to it and the mind and heart become intrigued and fascinated.
The producer for Istanbul of my photo project “What the world has never seen”, Ms. Vanya Pieters, is one of the students of these MA Film and Photographic Studies at the University of Leiden. She was asked by one of the professors, Mr. Bas Vroege, to give a lecture for him and the other students about her experiences being involved in the innovative photo project “What the world has never seen”.
There are only two persons, besides myself, who have seen the images and heard the stories of the photo project “What the world has never seen”. One is Ms. Vanya Pieters and the other person is Mr. Pieter Eeltink. Mr. Eeltink is the supervisor of “What the world has never seen” and therefore entitled to see the results.
That is a choice.
One of the most extreme photographers that I know is Ms. Inge van Iersel. A 24 year old woman from the south of Holland that finished her studies at the Art School St. Joost in Breda, Holland last Spring. She was mentioned in last week's column and yesterday she won the prestigious Photo Academy Award 2011: the most important prize a young photographer can win in the Netherlands.