Events
From an exciting music festival to a modest book reading: I am a member of the public, become part of the story, and catch the atmosphere of the event. Curacao offers a variety of events of different art forms and with a varied public, with all of the tastes and cultures offered by the island: a pleasure to be allowed to photograph in the clear daylight or the tropical night light.
Music
Music and theater are the most touching art forms for me. They can totally cheer you up, move you deeply, or just let you be totally fulfilled; it may change your feelings completely from one moment to the next. Everyone reacts in his own way to the rhythm, the singing and emotions of music. I find it great to be able to record this beauty at various music events. Artists, event organizers, and hospitality enterprises use the pictures then for their own marketing and promotions.
Izaline Calister
There are singers who touch your heart. The talented Izaline is such a singer. What a beautiful woman and great artist. Izaline sings and performs with her total soul. Her expressions are a pleasure to photograph: what an honor to be allowed to do it.
Curacao North Sea Jazz Festival
The biggest music event of Curacao with great international artists and visitors from all over the world is the Curacao North Sea Jazz Festival. The World Trade Center is full of energy of enthusiastic visitors who have been looking forward for months to the appearance of world class performers, and the excitement of the artists themselves, each of whom is positively surprised by the ambiance of this small island, of which most have never heard before, but which they will never forget. Not just the event itself is a big happening on Curacao, the island is full of performances to get into the mood. Also in the streets of the Pietermaai District performances take place. Great artists in intimate streets and pleasant clubs produce splendid, intimate pictures.
Curacao BlueSeas Festival
Not in a distinct concert area, but simply in the streets of the Pietermaai District, the Curacao BlueSeas Festival takes place. The interaction between the international Blues artists and the visitors creates an intimate and personal sphere; great to see and even greater to record it in pictures. The deep saxophone sounds, whining guitars and warm soul voices tell the greatest stories and change the Pietermaai District into a surrealist environment, comparable to the old Havana. People swoon, dance, laugh, jump. Meanwhile, I run with my camera from one performance to the next! I worm myself through the crowd, climb into scaffoldings or lie full length on the stage, looking for interesting pictures, the correct light and the right setting. I love my profession.
Vuile Huichelaar (“Dirty Hypocrite”)
Vuile Huichelaar is a cabaret show by Paulette Willemse and Saskia van Zutphen, well known in the Netherlands. In April 2015 the hilarious couple gave a show on Jan Thiel Beach. The beautiful, romantic, almost idyllic setting on the tropical beach with a sultry evening sky and waving palm trees formed a splendid contrast with the two sober-minded, somewhat cynical down-to-earth types: an incredibly great context to photograph. The result: lively, fantastic pictures of an exuberant evening!
Dutch artists
As the photographer for Shout Productions – an independent concert and theater promotor on Curacao, Aruba and Bonaire – I have the honor to cover performances of famous Dutch artists such as Guus Meeuwis and Jan Smit. It is fantastic to have them in front of my lens here on the island out of their comfort zone. The excitement and the enthusiasm of both artists and fans create a frenzied atmosphere with people joining when famous songs are sung swaying with the music
It’s all about the music
On Curacao we love live music, in every form and shape from all corners of the world. A musical happening is an escape: it is love, a social event. We just love parties here on the island. Over the years I have covered a variety of them with my camera at the request of clients varying from production companies to a simple pub, bands like Kensington, the Latin-American salsa queen Maite Hontele, the famous singer Shirma Rousse, Pistolerosdelapaz to name a few, and at the most beautiful locations on the island like Miles Jazz Café in the Pietermaai district, Zanzibar and Zest in Jan Thiel and Hemingway on Seaquarium Beach.
