Maarten van der Voorde(Netherlands)
Everyone is surrounded by "stories". When we look back, the moment has already disappeared and only the joy, emotion, experience and tension remains as a memory. With my photography I want to capture that one moment and thus tell the story again. Keep the memory and show the emotion of the moment. Looking at the photo’s should provide a re-experience, bring you back to that one moment or let it experience, take you into the "adventure". And so I am, with great pleasure, a modern "time traveler".
I feel like a privileged person. I can travel the world to beautiful destinations, meet beautiful and special people, experience nature and cultures and experience beautiful adventures. Commissioned or as free work.
But I always try to be aware of where I am, how special that place and the moment are. I want to record that in my way. So that I can share my "moments" with the viewer and tell the story.
My camera is my passport to events, my "time machine". People in their daily situations and/or professions are more and more the subjects of my photography. To tell their story with my camera, who they are and what they do, what is their experience, skills and/or emotions.
I portray reality. Not to shock, but to make the viewer (more) aware and perhaps bring about a change. From nature to technology, from action to portrait, commissioned or free work, from wedding to funeral, far away or very close, but always with a lot of passion and pleasure!
I once started with an analog camera with a 50mm lens in 1976, later I switched to digital, eventually with full-frame cameras with corresponding bright lenses.
A few years ago, I discovered the FUJIFILM X Series cameras and lenses and was immediately impressed by the quality, but especially the way you can work with this equipment. This changed my view on, but also my style of photography. For me this meant the switch to FUJIFILM in 2016.
But my passion for photography, feeling and my eyes are my most important tools.
As a professional reportage and documentary photographer I have been able to work with many different photo cameras over the years. In the end I also photographed with DSLR cameras with heavy and large bright lenses. The full photo equipment that I took with me on my photo trips, with the bright and therefore heavy lenses, quickly weighed about 15 kilos!
In 2013 I got my hands on a FUJIFILM X100S. I thought it was a special "compact" camera that I liked to have "along". I was soon impressed by the image quality, but especially by the "different way of photographing" that this camera more or less forced me to do.
After several tests with the FUJIFILM X-T2 and the X-Pro2, it turned out that they could replace my DSLR cameras excellently in my photography.
Now I shoot with two X-H1’s with battery grips in combination with the bright zoom lenses. This set is used for "heavier" (industrial) photo work, sports and nature photography.
I choose my X-Pro3’s for reportage-documentary photography. It is a small, unobtrusive, friendly and retro style camera that is easy to travel with. I prefer to use the bright prime lenses from FUJIFILM on this. This set is used for the more "personal" reports, wedding- and farewell reports, travel photography, general documentary journalism, portrait photography and of course street photography.
Whit out any doubt I can now do all my photography with the FUJIFILM equipment!
The ease of use of mostly physical buttons enables fast and accurate work without having to wander through all kinds of menus. By assigning the buttons to my preferences according to my own wishes, I can work quickly and accurately.
In all light situations and weather-conditions I can rely on my FUJIFILM equipment!
The delivered quality of the excellent X-Trans sensor, the low weight and compact dimensions make it complete and a joy to work with. The fast, clear and sharp digital viewfinder gives me a direct view of what I am shooting: "what-you-see-is-what-you-get"!
My FUJIFILM cameras made me look at my photography differently. It makes me more creative. More and more people in their daily situations and / or professions are the subjects in my photography. The X-Pro3 with primes is a friendly and accessible camera, my passport to enter their world and is increasingly becoming my favorite camera.
