2017 Nikon-NOOR Masterclass Netherlands

Between 28 February and 3 March 2017, the Nikon-NOOR Workshop took place at the headquarters of Nikon Europe in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. This workshop launched Nikon-NOOR Academy 2017, following by workshops in Berlin, Paris & Manchester. Fifteen young photographers and photojournalist from the Netherlands came together for an inspiring four days of learning and sharing with NOOR photographers Yuri Kozyrev, Pep Bonet and Sebastián Liste and NOOR team represented by Asmara Pelupessy, Anastasia Muratova and Clement Saccomani.

During the four intensive days, the group reviewed and shared their portfolios, listened to presentations by the photographers, held in-depth discussions on practical and creative issues, and edited their visual stories. Below you will find a showcase of the participants’ work.

During the special Fotokroniek evening at Nikon-NOOR Workshop in Amsterdam that supplemented the workshop program, Sebastian Liste and Pep Bonet shared their latest photographic and multimedia stories. Watch recorded video from the Fotokroniek Special here

Ever wondered what it’s like to participate in the Nikon-NOOR Academy? Watch Nikon-NOOR Academy in Amsterdam

The masterclass has been made possible thanks to the generous support of Nikon Europe.

Nikon-NOOR Academy Workshop in Manchester from NOOR on Vimeo.

Alex Kemman

Between port expansions and violence.

The rivers in the back, the sea in the front and the rain in the sky. Buenaventura is the world wettest city, and is mostly created by the Afrocolombian descendants of slaves that had nowhere else to go. They created their homes on the water and lived from the mangroves and the sea. Buenaventura is Colombia’s second largest harbor. Despite its economic importance 80% of the population lives in poverty and in the twenty years 150.000 people have fled the city due to the violence. Thousands of people have been killed and hundreds disappeared. Many locals claim the most extreme violence came at the same time when investors became interested in developing the city. In 2050 Buenaventura should be the largest pacific harbor of Latin America and the face of the city will be changed irreversibly. About 15 mega projects are planned. One of those projects is the TCBuen port facility. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) - the investment branch of the World bank - has invested in this project, presumably because it will bring development to the city and the country as a whole, however, at what costs for the local people?

Alex Kemman

Alex Kemman is a visual storyteller, criminologist and cultural anthropologist. As such he focuses on state, corporate and environmental crime. Within his work unequal power relations and structures form a central theme. Presently he is working on photo book: Whispers of War, that discusses the daily life under ongoing conflict in Hâkkari, a predominately Kurdish province in Turkey.

MaDudu, who works as a development practitioner at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, assists with a research project on water and sanitation issues.

Bart Brouwer

An overview of a part of the settlement, which stretches over a wide and hilly area.

Because the settlement is partly governed by a traditional council headed by a chief, new residents can easily access land and build a home without planning or building approvals.

Since 2000, the eThekwini (Durban) Municipality provides basic water and sanitation services in the settlement. This toilet is not being used, because it was built on top of the grave of the resident's husband.

The appealing mix between urban and rural attracts many people from townships in the eThekwini Municipality and from rural areas in KwaZulu-Natal to the area. New houses are being built in a high pace, quickly changing the area�s character.

House of Buffalo Bulls

Mzinyathi (Zulu for ‘House of Buffalo Bulls’) is a peri-urban settlement about 30 km northwest of Durban, South Africa. The settlement suffered from the under-development of South Africa’s spatially segregated rural homelands under apartheid. As a result, the area maintained its strong rural and traditional character. The area, which stretches over a wide and hilly area, is under traditional authority and many people still practice old Zulu customs. There is a strong attachment to place in the settlement. The residents value the tight-knit community and the rural character while still being close to the city.

Bart Brouwer

Bart Brouwer (the Netherlands, 1991) is a self-taught photographer based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is a master’s graduate in International Development Studies. Bart aims to combine his knowledge of sustainability and development issues with photography in order to contribute to social and environmental justice.

Bram Schilling

Human remains found on the beach near Putumattalan. The Sri Lankan army tryed very hard to clean the area’s of proof of what happened. Nevertheless you can still find proof of what happened.

UNDER THE PALMYRA TREE

Under the palmyra tree documents the scarred and traumatized Tamil community in North- Sri Lanka. Stories of people who are struggling with the psychological and physical aftermath of almost three decades of civil war. An ethnic based war between the Sri Lankan Army and the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) called the “Eelam War”.

The war ended with a lot of force in 2009 and the Sri Lankan government has worked hard to cover up evidence of devastation, committed war crimes and genocide that took place. Since then tourism in South/ Central Sri Lanka is flourishing and tourists are awed at the tropical beauty of the mountains and beaches. Behind this mask lays a different reality were you will find the true face of suffering and suppression among the Tamils.

Today the Sri Lankan Army is stil occupying and controling the Northern region of the Island and for many Tamils it still feels the war never really ended.

Work in progress.

Bram Schilling

Bram Schilling (The Netherlands, 1983) is a commercial, portrait and documentary photographer with a BA in Film and Photographic Arts. He is compelled to find meaning to his profession, doing so by spending as much time and energy on his personal work that consists out of portrait series but also long-term documentary projects like the scarred Tamil community in Sri Lanka.

For him it is very important to tell stories that need to be told to the outside world, covering topics like human rights, mental health, social- and cultural issues.

Based in Amsterdam he finds stories next door as well as on the other side of the world, as long as there is an importance in the story to be told.

biometric pictures of Ahmad which he use to apply for the schengen Visa in the dutch Embassy. He got an artist Visa granted and got stamped from Lebanon of no return

Claudia Willmitzer

classic concert in Istanbul which we watched on the outside screen

Portrait by Ahmad after arriving with him in Amsterdam, Netherlands

The building complex of Bijlmerbajes AZC in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Love in Asylum

Our relationship began in 2015 Lebanon when I met Ahmad in Beirut. Ahmad is a musician and painter and left Syria because of the war in 2012. While I was returning to Europe to study in Vienna, Ahmad travelled to Europe via Turkey to seek asylum. He decided to claim asylum in Austria and was transferred back to the Netherlands due the Dublin agreement. I joined him and spent a year with him during the period of Asylum. We shared our beds, feelings and sorrows. In December 2016 Ahmad received permanent residence status in the Netherlands.

Claudia Willmitzer

Claudia Willmitzer is an international photographer born 1982 in Germany. She graduated from Friedl Kubelka School for Artistic Photography and Independent Film in Vienna, Austria. The last years she has covered social issues in the Middle East and South Asia. Although her tendency become more and more focusing on artistic expression and social issues of societies in the Arabic and Persian based countries. Her field of interests are human relation in challenging political environments. This includes the relation to each other and others territories. In 2016 she moved back to Europe where she continuously works on visual storytelling. Her work mostly reflects a minimalistic perspective of society and culture through photography. Her work is significant by an intimate relation to her subjects and the focus on paradoxical norms of societies and their environments. She is based in Amsterdam.

Claudia Dijkkamp Vento

Changing Of The Guards

A bittersweet promise of a utopian future.

In 1959, Fidel Castro spearheaded the Cuban Revolution: a dream for independence, once and for all, after a long history under colonialism and imperialism. The countryside has been essential for sustaining the revolution over 50 years since: it has endured decades of geopolitical resistance, including the fall of the Soviet Union - Cuba’s most important ally during the Cold War. Yet, it seems that times are changing. In 2014, Cuba and the U.S. agreed to normalise diplomatic relations and lift the embargo on trade. And now, following news of El Comandante's passing in 2016 and his brother Raúl Castro planned resignation in 2018, all eyes are focused once again on Cuba, to witness the significance of this transition.

Changing Of The Guards is longterm project on Cuba in transition, that intends to compose a mosaic of the different aspects of Cuban society, following over half a century of the Castro-regime.

In the first stage of this project - initiated in spring 2016 - Claudia aspired to capture the pace of Cuba’s countryside, the hard work but also the harmony between man and nature.

Claudia Dijkkamp Vento

Claudia Dijkkamp Vento (1991) is a dutch-spanish photographer and documentary filmmaker. She studied journalism in Utrecht (The Netherlands), with a specialisation in foreign affairs. In Africa she worked on different stories such as forced house evictions in Accra (Ghana) and the empowerment of civil society in Cape Town (South Africa). Besides social injustice Claudia’s interest lies in the otherness and the exploration of man’s inner world and the universality of the human conditions: hope, love, loss, resentment, fear, need for exploration, the capacity of construction and destruction… Since 2014 she’s focussed on documentary storytelling and is currently participating in the international master program in documentary filmmaking DocNomads.

Claudia is currently working on the longterm photography project Changing Of The Guards that focusses on Cuba in transition. In the first stage of this project - initiated in spring 2016 - she intended to capture and preserve the pace of Cuban life in the rural area, the hard work and the harmony between man and nature.

Claudio Montesano Casillas

« 6 pm - Garment
workers after a long
day of work use the
swinger truck to
commute back to
their home village
from the outskirts
of Phnom Penh. On
average workers
commute 20 to
40 km to factories
everyday. »

Beyond the Label

This project is part of my long term reportage where I spent the last two years documenting those who work in the shadows of the billion dollar garment industry in Bangladesh and Cambodia. I visited the buildings of Old Dhaka that house a different “factory” on each floor; crowded rooms filled with people and sewing machines. I met the Cambodian women who work 12-hour six days a week and live in terrible conditions. And though most of the workers I spoke to refused to be quoted, I hope with my work to give a voice to the million of people whose working and living conditions remain unchanged since the Rana Plaza tragedy.

Hester den Boer

Sandarmokh Memorial Complex – In 1997 more than nine thousand bodies were discovered in the woods near the White Sea Canal. Members of Memorial established a memorial cemetery on the site. In 2016 the local authorities for the first time where not

The remains of the transition camp to the island Solovki, where the first Gulag camp was opened in 1923

Rehabilitation card. This card people receive when they are officially rehabilitated from the crimes they were accused of under the Stalinist regime.

An abandoned former mining town in the Perm region

Ust-Omchug, a town in Kolyma. Here the biggest Gulag complex of the Russian Far East was build.

The Norhern mining town Vorkuta. Vorkuta is build of the biggest gulag complexes in the North of Russia. Because of the climate and the location the area was always considered unfit for living, but Stalin gave orders for eploitaition of the area any

A mass grave close to Vorkuta. Hundreds of thousands of prisoners where forced to work in the coal mines and on the contructions of a railroadtrack through the the permafrost. Many of them died.

Vorkuta is located above the polar cirlcle. In winter there is only a few hours of sun.

Antonia Novosad served as a political prisoner a 10 year sentence in a gulag camp in Kolyma. Her brother and fiancee were executed. After her release she returned to her family in the Ukraine, but she couldn’t settle here anymore. She decided to ret

Gulag

During Stalin’s reign 18 million people were killed, exiled or imprisoned. The gulag camps where spread all over the Soviet Union. After Stalin is was forbidden to talk about the atrocities and the Russian society has never dealt with this dark history. All over Russia there are undiscovered mass graves and there is almost no family untouched by the Stalinist terror.

Lately, under the repressive regime of Putin, Stalin became more popular. At the same time the memory of the years of the Stalinist repression is becoming a taboo.

According to a recent poll 45 percent of the Russians think positive of Stalin. Two years earlier this was only 25 percent. In the new schoolbooks Stalin is described as a great leader and an effective manager. The Stalinist repression was necessary to win the second world war and to protect the country against enemies and spies. Just as this is necessary today.

Hester den Boer

Hester den Boer is a photographer and investigative journalist from The Netherlands. She publishes in several Dutch magazines, under which De Groene Amsterdamm. She is specialized in Russia and the Stalinist past, on which she did research in the archives of Memorial in Sint Petersburg for six months in 2009.

Since 2010 she goes on a regular basis on long journalistic trips to Russia, mostly to Siberia and the far North. She founded the online platform ‘Mother Russia, small stories from a big country’ (www.moederrusland.nl) on which she publishes photo stories on the daily live in the outskirts of Russia. During her travels she mostly stays at peoples houses, which enables her to portray them in an intimate way.

Since two years she is completely focused on the significance of the Stalinist past in the current day Russia. She is working on a book on his subject which will be published in 2017.

One of her research projects was nominated for the European Press Prize 2015.

Jaasir Linger

Switi Sranan - by Jaasir Linger-3 copy.jpg

Switi Sranan - by Jaasir Linger-6 copy.jpg

Switi Sranan - by Jaasir Linger-9 copy.jpg

SWITI SRANAN

This ongoing long-term project is an hommage to the people of Suriname and their "Switi Kondre" (beautiful country), that's currently in a deep recession. "Switi" is the " Sranan" (Surinam) word used to describe all things sweet, delicious nice, pleasant beautiful and joyful in life. I focused on the "Switi" side of Surinam life, with Surinamese people living their "Don't worry, enjoy life!" ethos, although the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says the economic outlook for Suriname remains challenging.

Jaasir Linger

Jaasir Linger (b. 1991) is a freelance photographer based in The Netherlands, whose work mainly focuses on documenting the human condition.

Fishing has always been one of the major food source as the food crisis becoming more severe with the beginning of the dry season. Every day fishermen gathers by the river all morning before the massive heat looms down.

Jecan Chiu

Overlooking at the UN PoC site in Wau, one of the most congested camp in the country with 28,925 IDPs sheltering on just 134,514m square of land as of January 2017.

The PoC site in Wau continues expanding due to the increase number of IDPs coming into the site.

Children with the age between 5-17 years old consist of 31% of the total population throughout the site.

Due to lack of rain, and food shortage, workers are harvesting wheat earlier than expected.

IDP working to clear space to farm at a cemetery where they live.

Hundreds of IDPs are living at a cemetery in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.

To provide good sanitation, an area setup with running water for cleaning within the PoC site.

Sorghum, the primary food source provided by the UN, IDPs gathered to discuss the quality of food.

Children also helps family with their business selling foods within the site.

Cattle camp became a conflict area, where Nuer and Dinka attack each other for cattle and revenges.

LIVING IN CRISIS

Since the conflict started inside the world’s youngest country in December 2013, South Sudanese has suffered from human insecurity, food shortage, and being internally displaced throughout the country.

Ethical killing between Nuer and Dinka from the government led force has let over 38,800 hundreds of internally displaced persons (IDPs) which are now sheltering at the UN protection of civilian (PoC) site in Juba, South Sudan since October 2016, however thousands of civilians remain outside of UN PoC site across the country. The number of IDPs in South Sudan continues to rise, and has now reached an all-time high of 1.87 million.

This is a story documenting the daily lives of IDPs and civilians during this on going crisis.

Jecan Chiu

Jecan Chiu is based in Amsterdam, but born and raised in Hong Kong and grew up in Canada with a focus in covering Middle East and Africa stories.

He first started photography in 2007 with a traditional film camera, together developing and processing his own black and white film. Since then he have witnessed Arab Spring in Egypt back in 2011, and recently documented the internal displaced people's lives in South Sudan. Jecan has demonstrated a particular interest in the affects and aftermath of conflict, humanitarian and social issues.

Nescio's skin is red from the beatings with various kinds of whips. He is taking a well deserved rest on the with plastic covered (Rajko sleeps in it, he likes it to stay clean) bed.

Joris van Gennip

Rajko proudly talks about his hanging system. "It can hold up to 100 kilograms easily, the only downside is that it is really noisy."

After Rajko had his BDSM session with Nescio, Eric makes love to Nescio himself. "It takes practise" Eric says when i ask him about the size of the dildo's. And yes, he can take it.

The living room of Rajko and Erik. Located in the center of Amsterdam. Tucked away in a small alley of Rembrandtplein. Usually there is porn on the T.V - now some show about doctors.

Submission is part of the BDSM world. Slaves enjoy to be submissed by their masters. So does Nescio. "Yes master" is what he likes to say the most.

Rajko is showing how a "gloryhole" works before getting ready for the monthly BDSM evening in an underground sexclub in Amsterdam that he organises. "Straight BDSM is for pussy's, my evenings are much more hardcore".

Nescio, Rajko's main slave, is getting beaten with a spoon moments before starting a BDSM session wich lasts for 3 hours.

Master & Slave

When I first moved to Amsterdam, around two years ago, I remember cycling through the Red Light District when a beautiful woman looked at me from behind a window illuminated with neon lights. I waved, she waved back, I became red in my face. I realised : I’m prudish.

Sex and sexuality, apparently taboos for me in some way, where asking to be discovered and investigated.

Realising that the gay/male aspect of the Amsterdam sex scene was relatively undocumented, I decided to dive in.

I made a profile on a gay dating/escort site asking for men who were working in prostitution to be photographed by me.

Rajko, a more than middle-aged BDSM master married to a formed slave of his replied.

These photographs are some of the moments in their unusual and explicit life.

Joris van Gennip

As a freelance photojournalist Joris specialises in covering social issues around the globe.

Up close and personal with a strong photographer signature.

He started his career with an internship in the Dutch newspaper Het Parool, recently awarded European Newspaper of the Year.

Covering the mass influx of migrants to Europe resulted in various publications in Dutch newspapers and magazines opening doors for producing and publishing stories raining from riots in paris, the daily life of the LGBT community in Amsterdam and the living conditions of refugees on the Greek islands.

Joris was recently awarded the 3rd prize in de Zilveren Camera Award for a story about a midnight boat landing in Lesbos.

Currently based in Amsterdam, traveling whenever and wherever he can.

Maarten de Kok

The silent border of Ukraine

In March 2014 before the happening of the Crimea “referendum” I travelled along the political “border” between West and South Ukraine, from Savran, trough Kryvyi Rih, Dnepropetrovsk to Poltava. I took photos of the landscape and I interviewed (with the help of an interpreter) and took portraits of people I met on my way to get to know what they thought about what is happening in Ukraine. This became a story of a divided land and of simple people with strong opinions about their country.

Maarten de Kok

I have been captured by photography since I was a child leaving in the countryside (Drente). My first pictures focused on people around me, just daily life shoots in the farm house. During the Academia my interest started focusing mostly on East Europe, one of my frist story was related to the flooding of a small town in Romania. After graduating as documentary photographer at the Academia Minerva (Groningen NL) I have immediately started my own company as freelance photographer. By that time my interests towards East Europe grow even more and brought me to travel several times to Ukraine and Bulgaria. During these years I was mostly interested in showing with my series the happening of facts. Recently my work has developed in more conceptual way and I am busy finding a way to tell stories of single people, focusing on details rather than events.

Maartje Brockbernd

99 and counting

Research indicates that we are, as a society, lonelier than we have ever been and no other age group feels loneliness more than the elderly. Elderly can contribute a lot to their families, share their stories. There's a wealth of knowledge that can be passed on to the younger generation—if they can remain engaged. Henny, a distant relative, is lonely as well. From her 99th birthday, in July 2015, I’m visualizing how her loneliness looks like. She has no children and many friends no longer live. Her hearing problems increase her isolation. She can not longer participate in conversations and therefore she often lives in her own world. On the second floor, in the nursing home.

Maartje Brockbernd

The work of Maartje Brockbernd focuses on social issues; capture unseen or ignored realities. The main goal of her projects & assignments is to tell the true story about a person with a special background in the world in which we live, without judgment. This can be a subject which involves a larger group of persons or just a small story around the corner. Trying to start the conversation with society, sustain public attention and working towards social change. Maartje graduated from the Fotovakschool in 2016 and lives in Dordrecht (the Netherlands). She works as a medical photographer & freelance portrait- and documentary photographer for various clients.

Madeleine Bolle

UNCLE ROB

Autism is a disorder that can not easily be described. It can be reflected in different ways and to varying degrees. Everything that people with autism see, hear, smell, feel is processed in a different way. People with autism often have a good eye for detail, they are honest, straightforward, analytical and hardworking, but they have trouble making contact, are often afraid of changes, have a need for rituals and are often hypersensitive to stimuli. More than 1% of the Dutch population - about 190,000 people - has a form of autism. It is not clearly visually apparent, and no person with autism is the same. Autism is often confronted with prejudices, misperceptions and stigma. This makes it more difficult for them to function in society. With this project Madeleine hopes to shine a different light on autism, so that people are able to see the beauty of autism and that autistic people can also be interesting, funny and sweet.

Since autism exists in many varying forms, more stories of autistic people will follow in this project, starting with the story about my uncle Rob. Rob (53) suffers from autism, but to me he is just uncle Rob. He is kind, well organized and a bit peculiar. I find it sweet how he lives his life in his own way, and I want others to see that too.

Madeleine Bolle

Madeleine Bolle (1984) is a freelance photographer based in Amsterdam. She is in her graduation year at the FOTOfactory. She also holds a MA in Cultural Studies. Since 2015 she has been conducting documentary photography projects.

Through her personal projects, Madeleine studies people that are far and close to her at the same time. Her projects unite through intimacy which also defines her approach. With both projects “Now that I am mom” (2015) and “Papa” (2015) Madeleine studies her personal past and family relations. Sticking to these personal and intimate stories, Madeleine is currently conducting a project about teenagers, exploring the subtle transition from the innocent child into an adult with growing self-consciousness and increasing responsibilities. With her project on autism she wants to create more awareness about autism and reveal the positive side of the disorder.

Misha Pook

Here, only butterflies are free

East Jerusalem and the West Bank have been under Israeli occupation since 1967, posing many restrictions on the daily lives of Palestinians. Streetart is to be found everywhere on the streets of the Palestinian Territories and seems to serve many purposs like coping, resistance and commemoration.

Misha Pook

With a history in nursing and anthropolgy, Misha Pook found her real passion in photography. Misha has been photographing since the age of 14, but only recently started to develop an interest in documentary photography. With this specific direction of photography, Misha hopes to bring stories to light that need attention but most people are unfamiliar.

This boy needs some rest after playing football in the blistering summer heat in the favela Caxias.

Sabine van Wechem

Malu is getting ready in morning to go to school in the favela Jardim America.

The kids are waiting for Fabio to give his weekly football training. In the meanwhile they’re horseback riding around the field of Vacaria. Vacaria is the most deprived and dangerous area of Vila Cruzeiro.

Joyce is living in Vila Cruzeiro and spends most of her time hanging outside in the alley with her boyfriend Gabriel.

Inside the favela Vila Cruzeiro a bunch of girls are playing outside in the narrow alley in front of their houses.

Andre and his friend love to ride the motorcycle through the favela.

Brazilians love to make fun of each other. Jessica and her friends tease each other during a rooftop party in Vila Cruzeiro.

The football field of the favela Chatuba is a very popular place for the kids. Every day they play football or do tricks with each other to kill time.

Tota is an ex- Tota is an ex-drug-gang member and chose to lead a quiet life. He loves to hang around his self build house, listen to music, watch television and connect with his friends on his smartphone.

You can find a bar at almost every corner in the favela. It’s a colourfull place where where you can have a drink and play games on the old school Arcade consoles.

Igor is chilling with his friends at night on the streets of the favela Jardim America, smoking a joint to relax his mind.

Fica Suave

In Zona Norte of Rio de Janeiro you have the largest and most dangerous favelas. The favelas are factions of a completely different world where colourful houses open out to dark alleys, street parties and marijuana dominate the night-life. Obstacles they face are countless, like poverty and police aggression. At the same time, the favela culture is still one of all together – sharing a plate or a drink, making the best out of life. And being creative to come up with solutions for day to day problems. The favela can be a very warm and welcoming place, with the most beautiful people living there. This ongoing project is focused on the daily life of these people.

Sabine van Wechem

Sabine van Wechem is a Dutch photographer and a student of the Photo Academy in Amsterdam. Focus areas of her work include documentary photography and portraits, with as central theme: people and society, which she prefers to explain through storytelling on her own way. Her work includes subject matter both at home and abroad, for example she is currently busy with a long term project covering life in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Her photographs have recently been published in the Life After Football magazine and in various blogs including: streetware label Patta and Real Game Olympics. Sabine also participated in the 2017 Nikon- NOOR Academy in Amsterdam.