Things have been so hectic that only now I can find the time to go through the pictures I took on this amazing trip. Starting on 17 May, I spent a month travelling down along the east coast of the United States, together with a friend. We visited New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Charleston, Charlotte and... Continue Reading →
Shutterspeed: Southeast Wales
Last summer I passed through Wales on my way to England, stopping at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival to meet up with some of my former colleagues from the publishing house where I did my internship. What a welcoming sight the rolling green hills presented while the plane touched down at Cardiff Airport, and how... Continue Reading →
Blast from the Past: WWII in photographs
As I roam the internet daily for interesting World War II-related histories I come across a lot of photos. Usually, I save them, but I never really do anything with them. After reading Susan Sontag's Regarding the Pain of Others last week, an essay on war photography, I thought it would be interesting to pick out fifteen... Continue Reading →
Essay: Made to last? – The Jedi texts, totalitarianism and book burning in The Last Jedi
I wrote a short essay about the portrayal of the sacred Jedi texts as paper books in the new Star Wars movie, and how this relates to totalitarianism and the resistance against it. It's available to read here on Medium.com. Needless to say, spoilers for The Last Jedi. Excerpt: Could we imagine that there were once... Continue Reading →
Shutterspeed: Kuala Lumpur
In 2015 I travelled to New Zealand and Indonesia, an incredible trip which led to the start of this blog. To cut the 24-hour flight to Auckland in half we decided to take 48 hours off in the city where we had to transfer, Kuala Lumpur. As it turned out, 48 hours were enough, Southeast... Continue Reading →
Shutterspeed: Zürich
Four years ago my mum and I went to visit my sister in Zürich, Switzerland. She was doing an internship there and we had decided to take the night train from the Netherlands to Zürich, which would drop us off right in the middle of the city after about ten hours. I spent the visit... Continue Reading →
Shutterspeed: Suomenlinna
Given that there's only one month the Fins can properly call 'summer', it might be a bit of a stretch to call Suomenlinna, a former military bastion just off the coast of Helsinki, a little holiday paradise. Yet there was still plenty to see when I visited there in April earlier this year, though it... Continue Reading →
Shutterspeed: Dublin in self-portraits
You may remember my lightning visit to Dublin last year. I returned there for a proper visit last week, and naturally I took some self-portraits. It was lovely to get out of the city as well, for a drive through the Wicklow Mountains and a round walk on the small peninsula of Howth, a fishing... Continue Reading →
Essay: The world in self-portraits
Recently, I was asked by my friend Anouschka to contribute something to her creative online platform, LitCafe (a brilliant initiative, where writers, artists, philosophers and other creative minds meet). As the theme for October was "Déja Vu", I thought I'd write a short essay about my ever-ongoing self-portrait series: why I do it, why I call... Continue Reading →
Histourism: traces of Operation Market Garden
I’d had the date marked on my calendar for weeks: 16 and 17 September, Market Garden weekend. On 17 September, 1944, many a Dutch citizen in the south of the country looked up to the sky to see ‘falling angels’, aka Allied paratroopers, taking part in the largest airborne operation of the entire war. Though... Continue Reading →