I have been taking photos for almost as long as I can remember. Over time I found that the best work happens when I least expect it, when I have to improvise. So when I suddenly heard the noise of a middle-eastern wedding party a few floors down, on the doorstep of my house, I grabbed the nearest device with a camera and started shooting.

It was a Kurdish wedding and the couple and guests were doing a circle dance, called ھەڵپەڕکێ‎, شایی in Kurdish. The bride wore a white dress and had a red veil covering her head. The men played music while some of the women performed zaghārīt (ululation). The dancing, singing, music and joy turned into this wonderfully passionate twirl. 

When I looked back at my shoot later I briefly regretted not getting a better camera. Then I noticed that the grain and the imperfection of the lens captured the emotion better than any high-end equipment could've achieved.

ھەڵپەڕکێ‎, شایی (The Union)

A new year's card for friends, family and clients.

Quatoze, un

For this campaign I looked into the lives of several people who have been submitted to inhumane treatment. The woman who represents §5, the Human Rights section covering imprisonment, torture and punishment, is Hout Bophana.

Hout Bophana and her husband Ly Sitha got separated shortly after the Cambodian civil war started. Each presumed the other to be dead, but after the victory of the Khmer Rouge they learnt that their other half had survived. By then, Sitha was a soldier for the Khmer Rouge, while Bophana was on the other end of the political spectrum. Sitha and Bophana vowed to meet again and secretly began writing love letters.

The Khmer regime does not allow the display of love, besides that for the regime's leaders. The intercepted letters were used as evidence against the couple. Sitha was executed. Bophana perished in Security Prison 21.

It was important to me that the presentation of Æquālis did not distract from the story of those displayed, nor should these people's portraits be ornament for my work. For this reason, the layout and colour scheme are neutral, the chosen images are the main focus and the accompanying sections from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights require attention to read and take in. The logo itself creates a void in the portrait, the way a person's disappearance will forever leave an emptiness in other peoples' lives.

Æquālis

Specere

A visit of the Moscow State Circus, Berlin. 

Circe

transit

A night beyond

Series shot in former East Berlin around what used to be the Stalinallee, the socialist worker's paradise that has now deteriorated in a drab, deserted concrete desert.

l'existence précède l'essence

Created for conceptual and experimental photography periodical EIN magazine's first edition, theme "creative block". This piece is based on the Japanese Zen Buddhist concepts of wabi-sabi and mu. The title is taken from a philosophical text by Nishida Kitarô.

from that which acts to that which sees

A new year's card for friends and clients. Two corners of a sheet of gold coloured foil are folded at respectively 20 and 12º thus creating a 5-pointed shape (2+0+1+2=5).

20 12

Lacquer on scratched photograph.

This piece was created for Din A4, a travelling art show that exists since 2000. Private collection.

Collateral Damage: Sachschaden (in situ)

Neither of the two could find a way out of their situation. They took a lance made of laurel, sharpened at both ends and stabbed themselves in their chests.

The lovers met their deaths together, in each other’s embrace.

Llorando

Dedicated to Peter the Wild Boy, a feral child who lived in Kensington Palace as George I's human pet.

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Barbara Hovens