Experiment

“The enemy of photography is the convention, the fixed rules of ‘how to do’. The salvation of photography comes from the experiment.” – László Moholy-Nagy

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Inspiration

I’ve thought quite a long time about this blog post. What inspires me? Not only in my photography, but as a person in general? I strongly believe that the way you photograph says a lot about you.

So my inspiration. My inspiration comes from many things, but I’d like to mention a few. It inspires me to see or feel differently. Allows me to get in a flow, or to do some mind traveling.

Music

I wished I was good at making music. Except from playing a couple of chords on a guitar, my musical talents are very limited. I do however love listening to music. And one of my favorite singer/songwriter is Jeff Buckley. Tragically, he died three years after releasing his only studio album in 1994. I still think ‘Grace’ is one of the best albums ever released.

His voice was like a music instrument and could transfer so many emotions. It always hits me.

I was born in ‘73 and grew up listening to Pink Floyd and Abba in particular, thanks to my parents. It was however ‘Ten’ by Pearl Jam that greatly influenced me, more than Nirvana. For me, like many of my generation, it echoed so many of our sentiments in the early Nineties.

And when it comes to bands I’m all in for Radiohead. There are not many bands that keep evolving like Radiohead. Other bands I like are the Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, dEUS, Sigur Rós, Soundgarden, Toad the Wet Sprocket, The Tragically Hip, and Young the Giant.

Reading

Although I had to read a lot of novels for school, I’m not a huge fan of fiction. Although not too long ago I read a wonderful book (Dutch) ‘Meester Mitraillette’ by the Belgian writer Jan Vantoortelboom about the first World War in Flanders.

Instead I love to read travel stories. Redmond O’Hanlon for instance, or Bruce Chatwin who died way too soon. For me, one of the greatest novelists and travel writer is Paul Theroux. I absolutely adore his travel books. Especially ‘The Great Railway Bazaar’, ‘The Old Patagonia Express’, and ‘Riding the Iron Rooster’ were for me great travel books.

When reading these stories I just closed my eyes and the colorfully described scenes allowed me to sense the sights and sounds.

Magazines

Back in the days when I was young I just loved to read magazines. Windsurfing, mountainbiking, photography. My number one magazine was National Geographic. It was the combination of geography, social issues, adventure, traveling, history, and photography, lots of great photography. All the things I love and am generally interested in.

So it was the reportages photographed by the likes of Sam Abell, William Albert Allard, David Alan Harvey, Alex Webb that caught my attention.

And more

And so I could probably mention many other things that inspired me. The drawings by Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer‘s paintings, ‘Hollandse Luchten’ (Dutch light), William Eggleston and his color photography, among many things.

My wife and children, friendships, great colleagues, the daily commutes, road trips.

What inspires you?

All photographs by Wouter Brandsma

WEEK COLLECTION 34

All photographs by Wouter Brandsma

WEEK COLLECTION 33

All photographs by Wouter Brandsma

Thoughts on GDPR and color

‘Thought’ is maybe one of my most favourite English words. And it is very much part of my personality. When I did a Birkman method test some 18 years ago it was clear I was a thinker.

In a week, on May 25 2018, the new EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation will set in. And I wonder how that will affect us photographers. And especially those who publish work regularly on the internet or printed publications.

Now let me make clear that I don’t collect personal data. You can subscribe to my blog and you will receive an update in your mailbox whenever I publish a new blog post. The owners of wordpress.com, Automattic, also use cookies to track your internet behaviour. By next week they have to be compliant to the GDPR. I don’t run biometric software, but I’m aware that my photographs do sometimes show people’s faces. Automattic made the following statement about GDPR. If you, as a visitor of my site, want to know more about what Automattic, and it’s partners, do with the collected data, you can read that here.

Regarding privacy concerns I try to determine how that will affect my photography. I don’t photograph on the street with consent and don’t ask those photographed for their permission to be published. I have no commercial intentions for publishing my photographs. I don’t seek payed photographic jobs or clients. I have a day-time job and photograph for pleasure, therapeutic reasons, my personal mindset and right-doing, and because I just love photography and it is very much part of me.

Privacy is still a concern to me, and I will try to keep you informed on how this new legislation and all the privacy concerns will affect my photography. So, one of my first measures is activating the EU Cookie Law widget you might notice below.

I’d like to know what you do to comply with the new regulation. And will you take the GDPR in consideration when taking photographs in public spaces?

And when it comes to photography you might have noticed an increasing amount of color work on my blog. During my therapeutic counseling due to my burn-out I started using positive mindfulness on daily basis. And somehow using black and white in my photography didn’t feel right to me. Now looking back at my photographs from the last two months I noticed that subconsciously started to do a lot more in color. Therefore I decided to stop black and white for now. Right now, color photography syncs so much better with my current state of mind.

At some time I will try to dive deeper into this subject. And I’m sorry for my thoughts of sort on the new GDPR, but I feel an obligation to you, the readers of my blog, to make this clear.

And on a different note, when it comes to 100% photographs post (like the previous one) I will probably keep the comment section closed so all the focus will be on the photographs instead. Feel free to contact me by mail or twitter (and follow me there too).

All photographs by Wouter Brandsma