Verviers is a small town in the province of Liège, Belgium with a little over 50.000 inhabitants. I've been there twice to photograph. It is not a rich city as is clearly seen in the first images taken in the center: grey drab streets burdened with many boarded up buildings and here and there a closed club demonstrating a more lively past. The people on the street often hang around in little groups reflecting big cultural diversity. I see in the whole of the images poverty, unemployment, loneliness and boredom contrasting with reconstruction, playful merriment and feelings of togetherness and solidarity. In short: a series that I like to share with you and an example of my love for street photography.

Click photo for larger images

In the district of Buckau, a small distance from the Centre of Magdeburg languish since 1996 the abandoned factory halls of Schwermaschinenbau-Kombinat Ernst Thälmann. SKET, once the largest employer in Magdeburg with around 13.000 employees, produced heavy machinery for the industry here, not only for the Eastern bloc countries but also for the West.
I found this place thanks to a tip from a nice old-port worker. It was a cloudy afternoon with sporadic dabs of rain when I parked my bike near the extensive site. Fortunately there was a door half open in the large metal gate otherwise it would have been a difficult climb to get in. Unfortunately I had but a few hours of time to take pictures. Hope to return soon here before the whole lot has been demolished because there were a couple more, impressive buildings ogling me..
Most photos were made from tripod with (once again) the Canon 24-105 mm. Next time I definitely bring the 17-40 mm with me.
For the enthusiasts who can read German an news paperarticle with some facts about SKET in Magdeburg.

Click photo for larger images

An impression of Externsteine, a mystical place near the village of Horn in North Rhine-Westphalia. This was a special discovery; a beautiful rock formation in the middle of the woods. The atmosphere was also very good, especially in the evening when the tourists went home. A place to return to and relax!
In the middle ages, the place was used by hermits and a small church was builtt in the 12th century in one of the caves. On picture 9 you can see a religious sculpture from the same era although researchers suspect that parts of it have been made much earlier. There are even traces of human use in prehistoric times. You can read more on this page (in Dutch).
Since the last century, partly because of the interest of the Nazis, It has become a kind of pilgrimage- annex cult place. Every year thousands of people still visit to celebrate the Solstice.
I've met several interesting people who regularly come to visit or live in the surrounding forests and more or less have turned their backs on society. They use the place to meet, to discuss, to make music etc. On pictures 12,13,14 and 15 you see Michael respectively, Rene, Ruud and Bear.

Click photo for larger images

In a train station annex house near the village of Neuegersleben in Eastern Germany I found a blue, metal letter A. It was not clear where the letter had served for. Maybe someday it hung somewhere in the station and had meaning for the travellers. Or did somebody bring the A from another place and had just left it behind? In two sessions I made a series in which I gave the mysterious A a home within the different spaces of the languishing building.
In the last century Hitler passed here by train on the way to Berlin. Now the rails have been removed and sold as scrap metal. Like a harbour without water.

Click photo for larger images

Slightly weathered, industrial architecture in Rinteln, Lower-Saxony. Late in the afternoon on a sunny day so beautiful light causing the warm colours of the buildings to be reinforced.
The photos are made with the Canon 24-105 mm L lens, a great lens but slightly too short for true wide angle. Meanwhile I purchased the Canon 17-40 mm and think I will use it more often for architecture. The camera, the Canon 6d full-frame, I've bought at the beginning of this year is a keeper. Know it through and through by now thanks to some night-time photo shoots where you should be able to operate the camera blindly. In this series I've used the built-in GPS function for the first time so later on you can see exactly where the photos were taken. Very useful!
The last picture with the word “War” is of course a bit of a trick. There are still a few letters behind but they are outside the frame. You can probably guess which letters.

Click photo for larger images

Last summer I made a photo series during two days in a dilapidated brewery in the town Oschersleben in Saschen-Anhalt province. Here the in former East Germany popular Germania beer was brewed until the production was stopped in 1995 and the building was abandoned.
When traveling around as a photographer this is one of my favorite subjects. The contrast between mysterious devices that are a prey of decay, half collapsed spaces and nature slowly but surely paving a way on and in between the debris and the rustleaved machines.
The photos are shot from a tripod with a wide angle lens and a 50 mm lens, both by Canon, and occasionally a strobe in combination with a diffuse flash umbrella.

Click photo for larger images

Near the end of September I stayed in a forest for a couple of days adjacent to an extensive lake about 20 km north of Vitoria in the province of Euskadi aka Basque Country. On the shores of the lake lies a little village called Legutiano. After I crossed the N240 motorway which divides the village in two, I found out quickly that it's quite a boring place and there's little worth seeing. Fortunately the bakery was still open and I was able to buy some fresh bread.
On the way back I took a different route and I saw a small tunnel for pedestrians passing under the N240. And that tunnel proved unexpectedly worth a visit because it is decorated with impressive graffiti. Back to the camper in the woods to pick up my camera, a couple of lenses and a tripod.
I took about a 100 photo with two different lenses, the Canon 10-22 mm and a 50 mm lens, also from Canon and occasionally using flash. The bright sun was a bit harsh in relation to the light in the tunnel but eventually it resulted in some pretty nice photographs which I would like to share.

Click photo for larger images

At the Embalse de Yesa, a lake in the province of Aragón in Spain, you will find the hot springs of Tiermas. It is a wonderful experience to lie in the slowly flowing water that has a temperature of around 35 degrees Celsius. There is a strong sulphur smell but you get used to that quickly. Many people rub themselves with the mud. That is supposed to be healthy and in combination with the environment results in rather special pictures.

Click photo for larger images

A few weeks ago I made pictures in the new restaurant Brasserie Fitch & Shui in the World Trade Center in Amsterdam. A large part of the Interior is designed by D/Dock Design Development and built by Of Assemblies Interior Construction.
Once again a number of spaces with different types of artificial lighting, sometimes mixed with day/sunlight. Useful was that a stylist accompanied me during the shoot. She kept an eye on objects that looked out of place and shouldn't be in the picture, made everything tidy and presentable and sometimes added some attributes. Very instructive. I wish there always was the possibility to hire such an assistant!
Meanwhile, the photos were published on various websites and just before the official opening there was a press release sent round by D/Dock. Some of the photos are included (the exterior photo top left and the photo of the poster at the very bottom are not by me). Interesting to read because it explains why the name of the restaurant is so appropriate on the site of the WTC.

Click photo for larger images

Series of photos created on location at Baden Baden, an interior design shop in Amsterdam, started as a showroom by Piet and Karin Boon. There you walk through a fascinating world of stylish contemporary and classical furniture, lamps and art.
In terms of photography it is a challenge every time to find a good balance with all the different colored lighting; various types of lamps, daylight and possibly fill flash. In addition, the depth of field is of great importance. Often you photograph with small apertures and long exposure times of 1 to 6 seconds. The choice of lens is of course also important and you are looking for a nice composition, which is not always easy because the places where you can place your camera with tripod, are limited.
Interior photography is one of the areas in which I want to specialize. Especially since every situation is different and there's a lot of things to consider. A lot to learn but that keeps it interesting!

The website of Baden Baden.

Click photo for larger images