Kollektiv25 at Visa pour l’image in Perpignan

09/01/2012

From today on the Photofestival Visa pour l’image/Visa Off is exhibiting work from Julius Schrank and Lene Münch. Julius is showing different pictures from his work at the dutch newspaper deVolkskrant and Lenes work about German Fraternities is part of a group show of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Hanover.


»DAILY PRESS«, Julius Schrank, Visa pour l’image
Arsenal des Carmes, Rue Jean Vieilledent, Perpignan
September 1 to September 16, 2012
open daily from 10 am to 8 pm
free of charge


»AWARDED«, Lene Münch, Visa off
La Salle des Libertés, 3 Rue Edmont Bartissol, Perpignan
September 1 to September 8, 2012
open daily from 10 am to 6 pm
free of charge

Julius and Lene will both be in Perpignan and we would be happy to see you at the opening of »AWARDED« on Tuesday, September 4 at 6 pm. There will be wine!

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Meeting the »Seashepherds« on Tasmania.

03/23/2011

End of last year, I travelled to Australia for a story about the »Seashepherd conservation society«. Every year the group of marine and wildlife activists launches a huge campain to the Antarctica to chase the Japanese Whaling-fleet. This year the campain contained 3 vessels: The »Steve Irwin«, the »Bob Barker« and their new top gun, the stealth boat »Gojira«. Their big goal was to detain the Japanese fleet from killing any whales throughout the hunting-season. The campain usually takes about 3 months and was lounged for the 7th time. From the perspective of the Sea Shepherds, this year’s campain was a big success, as after a few days of chasing the »Nisshin Maru« factory ship, the Japanese returned home. With this retreat, the Japanese officially ended the 2011 hunting season in the southern ocean. After information of the Sea Shepherds, the whaler’s didn’t even take 10% of their quota. Anyways, I think at the moment the Japanese have much bigger problems to deal with!

Together with a college I travelled to Hobart on Tasmania, to cover the campaines preparation and to interview the founder of the society, Captain Paul Watson.

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On search for Orka-whales in northern Norway

01/20/2011

A few weeks ago, I’ve been on assignment in northern Norway. Together with a writing college, we flew from Amsterdam via Oslo and Bodø to Narvik.Narvik is a small town, which can be seen as the getaway to the islands of the Lofoten. From here we boarded an old Fishing boat, and started our trip towards the islands.
The next days, we basically cruised around to find the Orkas, unfortunately without any success…!
We later found out, that we were not just unlucky…. Until a few years ago, huge numbers of Orkas were visiting the sheltered waters around the islands regularly to feed on there main pray, the Herring. At this time the chance to meet them was almost hundred percent.
But in the last decade, the commercial fishing industry targeted the Herring heavily. Within a few years the population around the Lofoten was almost exterminated, and with the overfishing and the disappearance of the Herring, the Orcas also didn’t come back.
»They are still there«, explains our captain, »Somewhere far out on the ocean, they are looking for Herring.«

For our story, this fact was a little challenging. A reportage about whale watching without seeing any whale, doesn’t appear very authentic! So my college changed the story a little bit and wrote about the facts of the disappearance of the whales as well as the flair on the old fishing boat and the pure beauty of the Lofoten at wintertime. I provided the photos.
Around two weeks ago the story was published as the opening-story for the weekly travel section of the Volkskrant.

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How to kill a horse

12/10/2010

A while ago I got the assignment to photograph at a slaughterhouse for horses. In fact there are too many private held horses in the Netherlands, so people are trying to sell them on the Internet. This, in many cases doesn’t work because there is just no need for these high number of animals. Especially when the horses suffer from something that impacts there function as a sport horse in a negative manner.

I photographed at a slaughterhouse before, but I was still excited when I got on this assignment. Anyhow there is a difference between seeing a pig rather than a horse dieing. It is probably because today a horse is nothing more than a pet for us. There is no longer any economical need for dobbins or working horses like a 100 years ago. Next to that horses do not get reared to feed the human race like pigs or cattle do.

But I also think, if you eat meat, you should be aware of where it is coming from. At least we should keep in mind, that the in plastic wrapped peace of meat in the supermarket was an animal before.

Anyways, I spend some hours photographing the slaughters following their work. This is how it looks:

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