When I was busy scanning my  old negatives and slides from the 70’s and 80’s a couple of years ago, I noticed that the Acropolis in Athens looked exactly the same in those days as it does now. And so did the Sacré Coeur in Paris. Duh… Not so startling, you would say, but yet it was just what I needed, to realize, that if I had photographed these beautiful monuments together with their visitors, dressed in their flower-power outfits, with their super-8 movie camera’s or their Kodak Instamatics, my old images could have had much more historical value now.

This triggered me to go into street photography. Where I was used to wait patiently until all the people were gone out of my sight before I captured a monument or whatever, I now focus more and more on photographing people in their environment. In this way I want to make nice pictures for now, but also do an investment for the future, when my pictures  hopefully are even more fun to watch.

Like many other amateur photographers who focus on “the street”, my pictures are mostly in black and white. Color is nice, but it distracts from the subject. In comments you often see: “what a beautiful colors.” I do, however, not want people to like my street photographs mainly for their colors, but for the scene, the story. I save colors for subjects color is important for. And another thing: my street photo’s are mostly square, which has nothing to do with nostalgia or mimicry, but I like the format very much and every time it is a challenge for me to get a well-balanced scene into a square frame; a bit obsessive perhaps…

Some old photo’s and slides  that I always considered unusable (because of disturbing people in the sight), I give a second life by transforming them into square black and white street shots, which purpose they turn out to be much better for. I am very glad that I have always saved them!

Thanks very much for watching. I hope you’ll have as much fun watching as I have had making them! Oh yes, all photos are copyrighted.