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De Donkere Kamer platform De Donkere Kamer is een platform over fotografie voor liefhebbers en professionals.

This is me and Nadav Kander, photographed in Ibiza earlier this year.Nadav grew up in Johannesburg, moved to London in t...
28/08/2026

This is me and Nadav Kander, photographed in Ibiza earlier this year.

Nadav grew up in Johannesburg, moved to London in the ‘80s, and started photographing at 13. His work now sits in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A Museum in London. He won the Prix Pictet for Yangtze: The Long River, and in 2009 the New York Times Magazine dedicated an entire issue to his 52 portraits of President Obama’s first administration.

On September 17, his exhibition The Edge of Things opens at Foam Amsterdam, alongside a new book published by Thames & Hudson. When I asked him what he looks for in a picture, he said: “I don’t tell stories, I make stories.”

He won’t be the only one on stage that night. The evening also brings Bieke Depoorter, Robin de Puy, Wilfried de Jong, a live pitch competition, an image columnist, and a curator. One full evening of photography, told out loud.

On October 16, Nadav joins us at Pakhuis De Zwijger to talk about the work behind The Edge of Things.

🎟️ €20, link in bio or comment SHOW to receive all info
📅 October 16, Pakhuis De Zwijger, Amsterdam, 8pm

This is the sunny version.Two days before this photo was taken, I climbed these same 21 hairpins alone, in the dark, in ...
27/08/2026

This is the sunny version.

Two days before this photo was taken, I climbed these same 21 hairpins alone, in the dark, in a thunderstorm, no overshoes, water in my cycling shoes. That was the finish of a 4-day, 500 km bikepack trip from our house in the Auvergne to Alpe d’Huez.

This photo is from the climb after. The one where dozens of colleagues from my husband’s company took on the same mountain for Climbing for Life, in support of the Diabetes Liga. Full sun, a completely different day, same road.

Two climbs, two versions of the same mountain. That’s basically what a photography business looks like too. Some seasons you’re climbing in the rain, alone, and no one sees it. Other times you’re climbing in the sun, surrounded by people, and it looks easy from the outside. It rarely stays one or the other for long.

In the new episode of De Donkere Kamer, I go through what this trip actually taught me: about never feeling fully ready, about plans that don’t survive contact with reality, and about why so many photographers quit right before the momentum arrives.

🎧 New episode is live, in Dutch and in English. Comment PODCAST to receive the Dutch one and ENGLISH to receive the English one

PhotographerPodcast Bikepacking CreativeEntrepreneur PhotographyPodcast WomenInPhotography EntrepreneurLife

What do you do when your subject can’t be photographed?That’s the question that’s followed photographer Paolo Woods thro...
25/08/2026

What do you do when your subject can’t be photographed?

That’s the question that’s followed photographer Paolo Woods through basically his entire career. The oil industry. Tax havens. The pharmaceutical industry. None of them exactly photogenic.

I met Paolo in Arles, during Les Rencontres d'Arles , for this new episode of the podcast. This photo was taken right after we recorded.
His answer to that impossible question is always the same: research first. Months, sometimes years of it, before he lifts a camera.

“If I know something, I see something,” he told me. “If I know nothing, I just see a tree and a green leaf.”

We talked about the four years he spent as artistic director of Cortona On The Move, choosing one theme a year instead of showing “the best of photography.” About how working with limits, like a journalist who couldn’t get access to Gaza and instead used soldiers’ Tinder profiles, can make the work stronger. About Happy Pills, his five-year project on our obsession with control and happiness. And about the project he’s working on right now, the first one in his career he’s making entirely alone.

What stayed with me most is something he said about art: that it’s the shortest path between two people. A feeling, carried across in the most direct way you can find.

Comment ENGLISH and I’ll send you the link 🎧

It’s August 22. September is nine days away.You don’t want to spend your last days of summer working. But you also don’t...
23/08/2026

It’s August 22. September is nine days away.

You don’t want to spend your last days of summer working. But you also don’t want to walk into September like you never left your desk. That’s exactly what The Daily Frame is for.

A short daily podcast, 21 weekday episodes, 10 to 15 minutes each, straight to your inbox. Not about working through your summer. About small nudges that keep your ideas moving while you’re still on holiday. Listen on your walk, at breakfast, on the way to the beach. You stay in your holiday rhythm. Your business keeps ticking along quietly next to it.

Mindset, creativity, business, networking, turning ideas into actual projects. Honest reflections, including where I got stuck myself. So that September first doesn’t feel like starting from zero. You’ll already be a few steps ahead.

Tomorrow at midnight, the doors close for this summer. €9,99 for the full series, or €8,88 a month for a full year of everything. Comment DAILY to receive all info

22/08/2026

Resistance is the reason your project is still stuck in your head and hasn’t made it into the world. My thoughts on photography and the photo industry, today about why resistance isn’t a stop sign, it’s part of the process. Got a question about this? Send me a DM.

Every summer, I hear the same thing from the photographers I work with.They finally take time off, and instead of rest, ...
21/08/2026

Every summer, I hear the same thing from the photographers I work with.

They finally take time off, and instead of rest, they get this quiet panic. Fewer emails, almost no inquiries, a revenue that goes silent and a mind that won’t stop running the numbers.

I used to be there too. Sitting in that unease every single summer, wondering if the work would come back.

Here’s what changed it for me: that panic was never about the vacation. It was about not knowing what I needed to earn, month by month, and never building the buffer before I left.

In the newest episode of De Donkere Kamer, I go into what actually causes that summer dip, why “balance” isn’t the answer, and what it takes to build a business that can hold your rest instead of punishing you for taking it.

If you recognize that unease, this one’s for you.

🎧 New episode is live, link in bio, or comment PODCAST and I’ll send it to you in Dutch. When you comment ENGLISH, you’ll receive the English spoken one.

20/08/2026

Everyone has access to knowledge now, direction is a different story. My thoughts on photography and the photo industry this week: what actually stays scarce when everyone has the same tools. Direction, distinction, vision, courage, which one is it for you? Let me know in the comments.

THIS CLASS IS NEXT WEEK. We are so happy to announce that Ebrahim Alipoor’s masterclass will be rescheduled for August a...
19/08/2026

THIS CLASS IS NEXT WEEK.

We are so happy to announce that Ebrahim Alipoor’s masterclass will be rescheduled for August and that Ebrahim Alipoor himself is unharmed. These have been difficult months for him.

The theme of the class remains unchanged:

WORKING WITHOUT ACCESS, BUDGETS OR INSTITUTIONS, building stories that matter

You have a story that deserves to be seen.
But your reality is: no budget, no access, no network opening doors and no institutions backing or protecting you?

Then probably the most dangerous thought creeps in: “Maybe this isn’t for me…” yet, this is exactly the moment to keep going. What Ebrahim did himself and what to teaches you.

On August 27 at 4PM CEST, Ebrahim is hosting a live online masterclass that proves impact does not start with resources, it starts with urgency. He developed his photography in Iran, where censorship, control, and risk are part of the job (as we all know by now…)

He had no resources, yet real consequences. He had no permission, yet a crucial need to speak up. Still, his stories reached the international stage and earned World Press Photo Story of the Year 2025.

In this masterclass, he will share how to:
• Build powerful stories with the reality right in front of you
• Turn restrictions into creative energy
• Keep making work when systems try to silence you
• Bring local narratives into the global spotlight

This isn’t a masterclass for those waiting for comfort and permission, it’s for photographers who know their work matters even when no one is opening the door right away.

📅 August 27 4pm CEST — Live Online on webinargeek
🔥 25 euros + small extra if you want the replay
🌍 For visual storytellers anywhere in the world

Comment EBRAHIM to receive the link.

This is my conversation with photographer William Keo We sat down together at Les Rencontres d’Arles, right after he fou...
18/08/2026

This is my conversation with photographer William Keo

We sat down together at Les Rencontres d’Arles, right after he found out his project Extra Muros had won this year’s World Press Photo Award.

Extra Muros is about the French banlieue where William grew up. Not the version you see on the news. The version he actually lived: friends, barbecues, football, boredom, violence, all of it at once. What started as casual photos of people he knew grew into a nearly 400-page book, years in the making.

We talked about being an introvert in an industry that rewards the opposite. About the NGO internship at 18 that sent him into a refugee camp in Lebanon before he’d even finished growing up. About three years at Magnum Photos, and why he chose to walk away. And about why he trusts a book to outlast almost anything else he could make.

He said photographers are rarely the best editors of their own work, and that letting someone else in on your edit (in his case, Peter van Agtmael) can completely change how a project lands.

This is one of the first interviews on my brand new English-language podcast channel. International conversations like this one will live there from now on, not here. If you want to keep hearing from photographers like William, follow it so you don’t miss the next one.

🎧 Comment ENGLISH and I’ll send you the link.

It’s been a while since I shared anything about my 1:1 mentoring here.Not because it stopped. It’s still one of the thin...
17/08/2026

It’s been a while since I shared anything about my 1:1 mentoring here.

Not because it stopped. It’s still one of the things I really care most about doing. On average I’m mentoring around ten photographers at a time, each on their own track.

This is a screenshot from one of my calls this week, with Noortje Palmers. Some weeks it’s Noortje, figuring out where to put her energy next. Other weeks it’s Max Vicca sitting with doubt about a project he’s actually proud of. Or Melissa Kanters - Creative Identity Fotograaf starting to see where she’d been getting in her own way. Among others…

Different photographers, different stories but the real question underneath is almost always the same: not “am I good enough with a camera,” but “where do I put my attention, and what am I finally willing to choose.” And also: how? ;-)

It’s a six months trajectory. A kickoff session in Antwerp or Amsterdam. Monthly video calls, 2 live in between meetings, whatsApp coaching in between. That’s the structure. Inside it, the work is concrete: sharp questions, honest feedback, and decisions you actually have to make.

If you’ve been circling around the idea of working together, consider this your sign to stop circling!

Book a free call. No pressure, no pitch. Just an open conversation about where you are and where you’d like to go. DM me MENTOR and I’ll send you all the info.

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1019 HC

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