Michiel Heijmans

Esther, Puck & Linde - Wijchen (NL) - 30 Minutes Shutter Time - 35mm - City Trips - 1974

Hi, I'm Michiel.

My passions are portraits and street photography. I love emotion and stillness in both disciplines.

Photography is fantastic, and shooting is a part of it. Besides photographing, always with people at the centre, I wrote several books on street photography:

1. The Law of the Street (2025), e-book with Charlotte Meindersma
2. The Observer (2024), published by KOMMA Publishers
3. The Street Photo Bible (2023), published by Photofacts Publishing

Where the Street Photography Bible is primarily a textbook, The Observer is much more of an art book, with my vision of the street, of the NOW. The Law of the Street is an e-book with all the rules, practically discussed with examples with lawyer Charlotte Meindersma.

Because I prefer images accompanied by text and creating a rounded narrative, I was also a regular columnist for the renowned photography magazine in 2023 and 2024 Focus Magazine. From 2025, I will write monthly columns for the online course platform Photofacts.co.uk.

With friend Niels de Kemp, I have been happily creating since 2024 the photography podcast 30 Minutes Shutter Speed, in which we discuss a variety of photography topics in a light-hearted manner (YouTube, Spotify).

Artist Statement

As a photographer and visual/textual storyteller, I focus on people in relation to their environment. My work moves on the borderline between street and documentary photography, where I intuitively search for moments that stand out for their authenticity, vulnerability and silence. The human presence in public space is always the starting point. Small gestures, accidental compositions, a light that triggers something - these are the elements that give my images meaning.

I consider street photography a form of visual poetry. With my fixed 35mm lens, I get close to life as it happens, always alert to what presents itself. The street is my stage, the passer-by my protagonist. In my portrait photography, I explore the same themes in a more hushed context. I want to make portraits that linger - images that whisper, not scream.

Besides my autonomous work, I give workshops and offer mentorships, guiding photographers in their own search for form and content. For me, this is not about technique, but about developing a personal gaze. Those who learn to look with attention not only discover the world differently - but also themselves.

Room for creativity

Besides photography and writing, I regularly teach lectures and workshops, often in the field of street photography. Here you will find my agenda for the coming period.

Above all that, I am father to my daughters Puck and Linde and married to Esther, who still gives me the space to dive deeper into photography, even when I am away for a few days for a workshop abroad again (this year Zurich, Paris, Prague and London).

In a previous life, I dealt with websites and search engine marketing, including as COO and co-owner of the WordPress plugins company Yoast (120 employees at the time I quit). I am glad that in 2021 I chose to get off my desk chair and take up photography. It is a particularly rich and varied world that I have not seen nearly enough of.

I now choose my assignments on challenge and job satisfaction.

Above all, let me know what I could do for you!

Please contact me first →

A trainer from The Hook Once said to me: If you're not going to do anything with people, it's a shame for those people. The nicest compliment, and one I have always kept in my back pocket.

Michiel Heijmans photography workshops

Meyt my background, I know better than anyone what it is like to get lost in your work. Ten signs in the air and people already talking about the next deadline. You think you have a grip, but the grip leaves your hands like an uninvited guest. In your head, elephants are running around in circles and at night you have trouble getting to sleep because tomorrow you will have to do it again. Anyway, you know what I mean. You know what you should do?

You should narrow your scope with the viewfinder of a camera. Make your world small and manageable by sticking to a single assignment. Photograph the absence of people, or take a classic street shot in black and white. If you need a break from the daily grind and the running, join me. My workshops are informative, fun and mindful. Small groups of up to 5 people. Sandwich in between. Nothing is compulsory, but I am sure you will see things differently.

Thank you, Michiel. You're a true artist!

Rachelle Verhage, at Instagram