A fairground or flea market with stalls and children in colourful clothes.

Ode to the holiday snapshot

Our holiday snaps are the most sincere photos we can make. Less considered, less staged, more spontaneous.

A woman in a checked dress looks at her phone while sitting on the metro.

Photos are the perfume of life

A photographer makes images, but it is never really about the images themselves.

Aerial photograph of two cargo ships at sea, with a beach and a pier in frame.

9 tips for photographing in hot weather

Your camera protests, your battery gives up sooner and you stand there sweating in an outfit you did not want to wear.

Black and white portrait of a woman making a gesture with her hand alongside her face.

Portrait photography, so many possibilities

Photography invites you to lose track of time. For me that happens with portraits, and the need to really listen to people keeps growing.

Black and white reflection of two men photographing themselves with a camera.

Paris was full of photos again!

Four people beside me, all with cameras round their necks. And before we had taken a single photo, the mood was already good.

Black and white selfie of a man in a cap giving a thumbs-up in an empty cinema.

Burnout and photography: how a crisis made me a better photographer

At the end of 2020 I hit a wall. What the burnout gave me, besides a couple of years off my life, was a different way of looking.

Nine black and white street photographs of Orthodox Jewish residents in Antwerp, among them by a bridge, a bus and bicycles.

Making series

Take a series with you in your rucksack and you get those small moments of luck every time you can add a photo to it.

Black and white side portrait of a smiling woman with curly hair.

Portrait photography for creatives: why you deserve a different approach

You need a photo that matches who you are when you work. Not who you are when you present yourself.

Yellow evening sky with clouds; a man with a camera round his neck photographs the sky with a raised phone.

A toolkit for photographers, without the faff

Thirty-five tools I use myself during shoots, in preparation and in the business side of being a photographer.

Black and white side portrait of a woman with curly hair and a bare shoulder.

Black and white or colour portraits?

Almost all my PAUSE portraits are in black and white. Here’s why I prefer it, what you lose without colour and when I make an exception.

A stretch of grass where two paths meet, with trees in the background.

Desire paths

Elephants always take the shortest route. With photography there are no shortcuts; you have to put in the miles.

Black and white portrait of a seated woman with her hands clasped and one leg crossed over the other.

How do you prepare for a portrait session?

The most common question before a portrait session is what to wear. It is also the least important one.

Black and white portrait of a smiling woman with curly hair, hands under her chin.

Why a portrait tells you more than a face

Sometimes the photo you recognise yourself in is the one where you were doing nothing special. On what a portrait shows, why time helps and the part you play.

Aerial photograph of a busy square by Madame Tussauds in Amsterdam, with a red light effect over the image, a snack cart and dozens of passers-by.

Always ON

I am always on. The only trouble it gives me is that I sometimes get tired of it myself.

AI illustration of a man at a desk facing a female cyborg figure in a futuristic, neon-lit room.

AI in photography

The question is no longer whether you use AI. The question is how consciously you do it, and what for.

Black and white street photograph of a man in a hat sitting on a stool outside a shop.

My struggle with film photography

Film slows you down and makes you think twice about a photo. And I have an enormous need for that.

A cluster of orange and red balloons against a clear blue sky.

Tape on a balloon

My head sometimes feels like a balloon about to burst. I am looking for tape, for a way to let a little air out now and then.

From street to portrait: what happens when you really meet someone?

Street photography is often a meeting without a meeting. Our lives cross for a fraction of a second.

A photographer in a red coat and blue hat takes a picture beside a glass building marked "Kassa".

AI and photography

AI fills in the gaps in your image and puts a blue sky where a grey one was. Handy, but where do you draw the line?

Black and white photograph of a man seen from behind looking out of a window, with a city in the background.

Telling stories

As a photographer you write with images. If you can talk for hours at dinner, you can tell stories.

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