Moving to Amsterdam…
It’s a long time ago that I didn’t write anything anymore. Many things happened since I left Haiti. I will try to make a short resume.
When I came back from Haiti I felt kind of weird. I missed and still miss it a lot and plan to go back next year. The Haitiens have a special way of life and I got used to it that fast that I needed some time to feel at „home“ back in Belgium.
The whole month of August I worked in a bakery in Eupen to earn some money for my next trips and camera equipment. At the beginning of September I went to the „Visa pour l’image- fesival“ in Perpignan, where I met some very interesting people and photographers and showed my work of Haiti around to get feedbacks and critics to know how to improve for my next trip. I also spoke to Claudia, the manager of the new photo agency Noor and asked to intern for them in November and December.
After that my school started again. It felt strange to go back to a normal daily life after I experienced so many things this summer…
In October I got a positive answer from the Noorderlicht photo festival. This summer I applied for their Euroclasses of documentary photography and then was taken. So I spend my weekend of the 12th October in Groningen, Netherlands and had a great time there with the teachers James Withlow Delano, Pablo Bartholomew and the 11 other participants.
The week after I got an answer of the Iroundbound workshop (with the teachers Donna Ferrato and Philip Jones Grifftihs) that said that I was taken there too. So I decided very spontaneous to fly to New Jersey the week after to attend this workshop. We spent 5 days and 6 nights together in the loft of Donna Ferrato in Newark, went to the Eugene W. Smith award in New York and of course took a lot of photographs I had a wonderful time there, spoke a lot about photography, learned a lot, made a new edit of my Haiti-work together with Philip,…. I met some amazing people and got friends from many different places in the world. That’s also a reason why I like photography that much. You make friendships all over the world.. It doesn’t matter where you come from or how old you are..
In the end Philip asked me if I would like to assist him next year in London. Of course I said yes. It’s not 100percent sure but if everything goes well, I will probably become his assistant at the beginning of 2008.
That was my summary of the last couple of weeks (or months). Right now I’m writting this, I’m in the train on my way to Amsterdam where I will start my internship with Noor. I will stay there for 6 weeks and work 4 days a week for them in their sales office. I’m very excited about that and look forward to start tomorrow.