Twelve years ago, I worked in the Russian North Caucasus, to create a story about the long history of violence and the gross human rights violations. We considered the region to be the backyard of Sochi, where the Winter Olympics would soon take place. We hoped that these Games would bring some attention for this neglected region.⁠
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Western media rarely report on the ongoing civil war in the North Caucasus, not least because it is complicated for foreign journalists to work there. As a correspondent, you risk having your accreditation revoked if you plan to cover the civil war. Arnold and I are living proof. After our work in the North Caucasus, our next visa was refused⁠.⁠
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Russians knew little about what was happening in the North Caucasus. Our friends in Moscow were less informed than we were about the region, even though they believed they were very well-informed. They thought we were crazy for going to an area full of terrorists. The one-sided reporting in the Russian media (“Russia is being attacked by terrorists on its own soil”) was effective even then. Russian journalists, far braver than we are, paid with their lives for trying to expose the Russian regime’s role in fueling all the atrocities. If not killed, they were mutilated, or placed in prison.⁠
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The story we made back in 2012 can be viewed here. Looking back, I feel that our story, filled with history and misery, did not have enough impact at the time, to bring the horrific human rights abuses of the Putin regime enough into the spotlight.⁠
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As a counterpoint to all atrocities we covered, we also worked on a series about one of the most beautiful sports in the world and the region’s most popular sport: Wrestling. We visited a zillion wrestling schools filled with kids training to follow in the footsteps of their local hero, one of the greatest wrestlers of all time: Buvaisar Saitiev. This series of fifteen portraits is from the book ‘Life Here is Serious’, which is temporarily made available in my shop for 35 euros. Half of the proceeds go to Protect Ukraine, which supplies equipment to the Ukrainian army.

Over the course of six subsequent summery Tuesdays, The Europeans was invited to supply content for the middle pages of Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant (big thank you Volkskrant!). The decision was made to publish a series of group portraits made in six different countries. To do so, we quickly had to go to Thueringen, in order to include Germany in this series. Where we photographed groups at a medieval festival, a performance of a brass band and a shooting club. That last one made it into the newspaper. The different episodes can be viewed online.

For an article in the context of the European parliamentary elections, The Europeans was invited by D Magazine - a weekly publication of the Italian newspaper la Repubblica - to provide 30 portraits of young people from different regions of Europe.

Hope to see you at the next FOTODOK Book Talks in Tivoli Vredenburg Utrecht. The FOTODOK Book Talks is the platform for the stories behind photo books. In this live talk show, together with Giya Makondo-Wills, I interview visual storytellers, photographers, designers and publishers.

In this edition, Viviane Sassen with her retrospective work Phosphor. Through vividly coloured portraits, landscapes, still lifes and abstract compositions, Sassen explores a range of themes and topics such as identity, gender, body, race, fashion and environment. Hristina Tasheva with Far Away From Home. Born and raised in communist Bulgaria, Hristina has lived in the Netherlands for 21 years. Yet she still struggles with finding her place in society: do locals see me as a communist? Sandra Minten with her book 90 eggs and one omelette about Leen, a homeless, to drugs resident of a small community, the City Nomads. And Kristof Titeca with his research project on Nasser Road in Uganda, a mythical place known for its print trade and as a hotbed for fraud. In Nassar Road, Titeca draws attention to one of its main products: posters and calendars depicting politicians and well-known personalities as superheroes.

If you cannot attend the live talkshow in Utrecht, discounted tickets are also available for a live stream of this event.

This is a story about the Black Country… Its history is grand and proud. It is where the foundations of the industrial present were laid. Socialism, social democracy and climate change were all born here. But today, the Black Country has been relegated to the margins of world history. Between the shops of migrants from all over the world, empty buildings and theatres stand like black holes in decaying gums. As locals moved away, migrants saw opportunities for new beginnings. The Black Country has become a haven for people fleeing big cities and war-torn countries.

Softcover 170 x 213 mm
Language: English / Punjabi
Print run: 1,000 copies
Retail price: € 14.50

Since 2020, I have been working with writer Arnold van Bruggen and designers Kummer & Herrman on The Europeans 2020 - 2030. Our latest story, entitled The Black Country, will be sent to the printer this week. Pre-order your copy now for only €14.50 or buy one of the hardcover editions including print and thus contribute to the continuation of our project.

This chapter is a story about the Black Country. Its history is grand and proud. This is where the foundations were laid for the industrial present. Socialism, social democracy and climate change were all born here. But today, the Black Country has been pushed to the margins of world history. Between the shops owned by migrants from around the world, empty buildings and theatres gape like black holes in rotting teeth. When everyone else moves away, migrants see opportunities for a new beginning. The Black Country has become a haven for those fleeing big cities and countries at war.

Last summer, writer Arnold van Bruggen and I presented our latest chapter within The Europeans in the place where the work was created: The French Basque Country. After selling out the accompanying English-French publication Our Ancestral Home, we have just started shipping the brand new English-Basque edition (with new cover!). The print run is limited to 500 copies.

Now that our stock of the French-English edition has run out, we make use of the opportunity to reprint Our Ancestral Home. And to fulfil an additional wish: to make a Basque-English edition. Besides the change of language and the cover photo, the book will be exactly the same as the French-English edition. You can already pre-order, we expect to ship by the end of August.

Today the first books Our Ancestrale Home / Notre Maison Ancestrale were sent to people who bought a copy in pre-sale. The official launch of this new chapter within our multiyear project The Europeans will take place on Wednesday, July 13 at 6 pm at Station V in Bayonne. Want a sneak peak? Order now online or buy this brand new publication during Les Rencontres d’Arles at the following bookstores: Café Lehmitz at Fondation Manuel Rivera-Ortiz, Leporello Books at Le Boudoir 2.0 and KABK at the Capitole and collège Saint-Charles.

The Europeans 2020-2030, the project I am working on together with writer Arnold van Bruggen, is starting to get up to speed. Six months after launching The Naval Base, we hereby announce our next chapter Our Ancestral Home.

Our Ancestral Home is the story of a stunningly beautiful region of Europe where the locals cherish their traditions, speak a mysterious language and pass down the picturesque houses and farms from generation to generation. That’s how it has always been. But tourists and wealthy urbanites have now discovered the region, and the original inhabitants are succumbing to the lure of the exorbitant amounts that outsiders are willing to pay for a rural retreat. “We have sold our country,” activists lament. But who can resist the laws of capitalism?

You can find our latest publication The Naval Base / De Marinebasis for €9.50 at Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, Huis Marseille, Museum Hilversum, Nederlands Fotomuseum, Fotomuseum Den Haag, Citymarketing Den Helder and via online bookstore photobookstore.nl. In Germany at Kominek bookshop Berlin and Café Lehmitz Photobooks. In Belgium at the shop of Fotomuseum Antwerpen - FOMU. In Austria at AnzenbergerGallery and in the US for only $10.95 at photo-eye. We are always looking for more selling points worldwide. We offer phenomenal discounts for booksellers who want to work with us until the end of the project in 2030.⁠⁠

On Friday 12 November, between 6 and 7:30 pm, I present the live talk show FOTODOK Book Club - Paris Photo Edition, just a few steps away from Grand Palais. With amazing guests, including two nominees for the Paris Photo Aperture PhotoBook Award: Rahim Fortune (I can’t stand to see you cry) and Bieke Depoorter (Agata). I also talk to Rafal Milach about his brand new book Strajk and the vibrant protest movement in Poland. And young talent Michelle Piergoelam who’s work The Untangled Tales is exhibited at the place where this edition of the FOTODOK Book Club takes place: Atelier Néerlandais, 121 Rue de Lille, 75007 Paris.⁠
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Afterwards books will be sold and signed, including my own brand new The Naval Base, the latest publication within The Europeans 2020 - 2030.⁠
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If you want to attend, order your ticket ASAP for €14.30 via www.fotodok.org. Due to corona measures the number of seats for this event is limited. For a reduced rate you can also watch the talk show live from your couch at home.⁠

“Some say The Naval Base is the end of the world. They are wrong. This is where Europe begins.”⁠
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This is the cover of our forthcoming publication The Naval Base. The Naval Base is a town built, bombed and rebuilt by the government. When the government invests in the navy, the city flourishes. When the government withdraws, the city fades away. There are many more like The Naval Base in Europe: towns, cities or regions that are excessively dependent on the attention of the national government. A city where the population is unilaterally composed according to the demand of the largest employer.

Order your copy today for only 9.50 euros and receive it in your mailbox before 1 November, 2021.

Everything comes to an end. So does the stock of our book Empty land, Promised land, Forbidden land. In 2010 writer Arnold van Bruggen and I made the first edition of the book, which to our surprise quickly sold out. Three years later - in 2013 - we returned to Abkhazia, among other things to investigate whether a second edition of the book was actually relevant. Against all the fine promises of politicians from Russia and Abkhazia, the country turned out to be virtually unchanged. We decided to make a second edition of the book, replacing some photos with a remake we made during our stay in 2013. Few people noticed.

As a tribute to the almost sold out book and because we desperately miss Abkhazia and its inhabitants, I am currently featuring a series of fifteen precious images from the series Empty land, Promised land, Forbidden land on my Instagram account. If you want to order one of the last copies, please click on the link below.

Of course I don’t want to discourage you from ordering the first regional publication of The Europeans through my online store, however, in case you live in America or Canada it might be more convenient to buy from the US bookstore photoeye.com.

The Former Capital is the first regional publication of The Europeans, the new multi-year project by Arnold van Bruggen and Rob Hornstra. The Former Capital is a region where in the wake of newfound independence, nationalism and militarism are on the rise. The search for a strong, own identity is strengthened by a stagnating economy and the consequences of depopulation. The surge of globalism, open borders and a new morality often clashes with those clinging to the values of the conservative class.

And the three guests/books for the upcoming FOTODOK Book Club on 5 February 2020 are: Jack Latham with Parliaments of Owls, Marine Caneve with Are they rocks or clouds? and Paolo Woods with State.

Jack Latham can not be missed during this edition, as I had chosen his book as the best photo book of 2019. Marina Caneve’s book also ranked high on the same list. She graduated in 2018 with the eponymous project in dummy form that immediately won prizes. The final book came out more than a year later. And although Paolo Woods’ book is a bit older, I’ve wanted him in the FOTODOK Book Club already for a long time because of his unconventional ideas regarding reaching audiences. Last but not least, also Koen Suidgeest is coming to explain how he sold more than 6000 copies of his first photo book Why I Cry On Airplanes.

One of many ambitions Arnold and I have in our new project The Europeans is that we want to use our work to engage people in the heartland regions where we work. We do this for example by first launching our region publication during an exhibiting in a local gallery. In addition, we are trying to team up with a local newspaper, in order to reach a wider audience than just cultural enthusiasts. In the first region where we worked, this has led to a great partnership with the local newspaper Kauno Diena. Every week until the opening of the exhibition at the beginning of April 2020, they publish a full-page portrait from our project in the Saturday issue. The Former Capital is starting to warm up!

I was lucky to play a small role in the creation of this magazine, which, in my opinion, is about the greatest challenge photographers are facing: How do you trigger impact? I would like to applaud editors, authors and others who have worked so hard on it. Wonderful job! More of this please!

Our first publication of work from our new project The Europeans: The Black Country in Slanted Magazine, which is entirely dedicated to Europe for this issue. You can order the magazine via the link below.

If you’ve been to Unseen Amsterdam, you’ve most likely seen our free introductory newspaper or maybe even brought it home with you. In the near future we will try to distribute the newspaper as much as possible through selected organisations such as FOTODOK Utrecht, Photoq Bookstore Amsterdam, Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol or events such as Paris Photo and the FOTODOK Book Club. Also, a free newspaper will be included with every order in my online store.