People interest me; their surroundings, too.
I have always been fascinated by cultural diversity and the resilience of people to adapt when faced with life-changing situations, be it in the Netherlands or abroad.
After finishing my M.A. in Cultural Anthropology, I took up photography as a way to express what I was observing. The meaning of a photograph can be hidden in small things: a gesture, a look, an object, the surroundings… or perhaps the absence thereof. Places or spaces, with or without human beings… elements like these can tell stories, though not everything can be read from the surface. How then, can you make visible that which is not always seen?
To further deepen my knowledge of images, of what and how they communicate, I enrolled in the M.A. Film and Photographic Studies program (part of Media Studies) at Leiden University and in 2012 wrote my M.A.thesis on the imagery of illness. In 2014-2015, I participated in a VII Photo Masterclass on visual story telling in Milan, Italy. At the same time I started up my ongoing project ’Growing Up Orange’.
In the summer of 2016, I was ‘Artist in Residence’ at the AADK in Blanca, Spain. A month of hard work; thinking about imagery, rethinking the way I create an image, reading, exploring, getting to know people, photographing and driving around the region of Murcia, Spain. A month that inspired me and where I started up my new project ’ Floating on the Whims of Dreams’ which I continued in September 2017, while I was an Artist in Residence at Pinea-Linea de Costa in Rota, Spain.
Next to my own independent projects, I work as a documentary and portrait photographer for several clients. Mostly in the healthcare sector where I meet many resilient people as well. People can surprise you, over and over again.
And last, but certainly not least, I am a lecturer at the Fotoacademie in Amsterdam where I teach and coach students.
® All images Aleid Denier van der Gon
I have always been fascinated by cultural diversity and the resilience of people to adapt when faced with life-changing situations, be it in the Netherlands or abroad.
After finishing my M.A. in Cultural Anthropology, I took up photography as a way to express what I was observing. The meaning of a photograph can be hidden in small things: a gesture, a look, an object, the surroundings… or perhaps the absence thereof. Places or spaces, with or without human beings… elements like these can tell stories, though not everything can be read from the surface. How then, can you make visible that which is not always seen?
To further deepen my knowledge of images, of what and how they communicate, I enrolled in the M.A. Film and Photographic Studies program (part of Media Studies) at Leiden University and in 2012 wrote my M.A.thesis on the imagery of illness. In 2014-2015, I participated in a VII Photo Masterclass on visual story telling in Milan, Italy. At the same time I started up my ongoing project ’Growing Up Orange’.
In the summer of 2016, I was ‘Artist in Residence’ at the AADK in Blanca, Spain. A month of hard work; thinking about imagery, rethinking the way I create an image, reading, exploring, getting to know people, photographing and driving around the region of Murcia, Spain. A month that inspired me and where I started up my new project ’ Floating on the Whims of Dreams’ which I continued in September 2017, while I was an Artist in Residence at Pinea-Linea de Costa in Rota, Spain.
Next to my own independent projects, I work as a documentary and portrait photographer for several clients. Mostly in the healthcare sector where I meet many resilient people as well. People can surprise you, over and over again.
And last, but certainly not least, I am a lecturer at the Fotoacademie in Amsterdam where I teach and coach students.
® All images Aleid Denier van der Gon