India: Goodearth posters
I started an inspiring and stimulating cooperation with The Goodearth Company in India: on the basis of my photos, their designer Krsna Mehta created the posters below. And that is not all! Goodearth decided that 50% of the proceeds will go to Duniya Foundation, in support of our education programmes in Varanasi. This information is [...]
World Portraits: reason & criticism
The idea for World Portraits came to Bas van Beek years ago, when an Indian man who had posed for a Benelux photographer but received no compensation, saw his image in an advertisement. Van Beek recognized the unfairness of the situation for that model and countless others. Simultaneously, the micro-banking phenomenon began to take hold [...]
World Portraits: the idea & start
So what is this World Portraits all about? World Portraits is a fair trade photo collection of people from around the world. The beauty and uniqueness of World Portraits is that the person photographed can share in the profits. Every time a photo is sold, the person in question will receive a royalty. It is [...]
Photo of the Month: June
Anita recently delivered her first child, a son. An emergency Caesarean section which she could not afford. Her husband and mother-in-law disappeared and have not seen the baby. They decided that almost blind Anita was not good enough. Not as a wife, nor as a daughter-in-law. Not anymore. Her – almost blind – father looks [...]
Photo of the Month: May
During the religious festival of Makar Sankranti, which takes place during winter in January, many beggars populate the stone steps of Assi Ghat in Varanasi, leading down to the holy river Ganges. These beggars are often chased off by the police, who relentlessly beat them with their bamboo sticks. The woman in the picture arrived [...]
The Steve McCurry Effect?
A few years ago, I took part in an exhibition with the triptych below. Three photos of the same Bhopa woman from Rajasthan (India). She is never veiled like in the photo in the middle, but when we were caught in a wind that flew up a lot of desert sand, she borrowed my black [...]
A Bhopa girl grows older …
I know Mamtu, a young Bhopa girl, for many years now. Met her mother before she was born and I keep visiting (and photographing) the family every year. Mamtu is growing into a stunning young girl, and looks more and more like her mother. The collection of her photos forms an interesting document in time. [...]
FOOD!
India’s vegetarian food is my absolute favourite. Not only to eat, but as photographer I especially enjoy ‘streetfood’, the colourful, tasty, lifely foodculture. This is my first video using Nikon D3s. I am working on bigger productions – and not only about streetfood – and I was happy with the quality of the camera. A [...]
Makar Sankranti (India)
Published a photostory about Makar Sankranti, a popular festival in India. The full PDF can be seen here >>> and you can read more about the festival here >>>. During this festival, a lot of food is prepared and distributed to the poor for free. You can also see a short video >>> I shot. [...]
