The story behind
Adventurer. Photographer. Artist.
My world revolves around discovering forgotten places, capturing their beauty and transforming it into art. Three roles, one story.
It starts with curiosity.
I search for the forgotten, the abandoned, the places where time has taken over. Places that most people never see – or are no longer allowed to see.
Every location has its own story, shaped by history, people and time. My adventure is to find them, to feel the atmosphere, to understand what once happened here.
Getting there is often an adventure in itself. These places are rarely open to the public and almost never easy to reach. Finding a way inside can mean climbing, crawling, wading through water or searching for hours for an entrance. Sometimes there is one. Sometimes there isn’t.
But the moment I step inside, everything changes.
The outside world disappears. What remains is silence, decay and the traces of lives left behind. I want to know what happened there. Who lived or worked there? Why did they leave? And why was everything simply left behind?
The adventure is never the destination.
It is where the story begins.
It starts with seeing.
Once inside, I slow down. I look at the light, the lines, the colours and the details. As my connection to a place grows, I begin to see beyond what is visible.
I know where the light will fall, how the compositions will work, and how to tell the story. That’s the way. The distance. The details. The atmosphere. The unseen context. Each element is a clue.
I constantly ask myself what makes this place unique. Sometimes you wonder why it’s forgotten. Sometimes you wonder why it’s still here. I search for the meaning in the decay, arranging pieces together.
Photography allows me to preserve a moment in a place that may not exist much longer. But I don’t want to tell you exactly what happened there. I would rather leave room for your own imagination.
It starts with imagination.
I’m an explorer in the truest sense. What I bring home is a moment, an atmosphere, a feeling that is only the beginning. When I look back through my lens, I discover what was truly waiting there. I feel the rest, something that the adventure and the moment alone could never reveal to me: how it made me feel, the emotion, the story and the beauty.
That is where digital exploration begins: reimagining, refining and transforming what I saw into what I felt. I experiment. I listen. I remove. I add. I shape it into a work of art – a unique, signature look – my choice, a world that is true to the atmosphere of the place or exactly the way it speaks to me.
Your world, redefined.
Decay ignites the imagination.
The rest of the story is yours.
explore the beauty of decay
What started with a fascination for an abandoned factory as a child eventually became a journey around the world.
Born in the Netherlands in 1978, I am a self-taught photographer and artist. Over the years, my search for forgotten places has taken me far beyond the Netherlands to unique locations around the world. The photographs I brought back found their way into galleries, international art fairs and private collections around the world.
Along the way, I published four art books, bringing together the photographs, adventures and stories behind the places I discovered.
Touched by Time and Travel in Time received international recognition, including the European Book Prize for Best Self-Published Photobook.
And sometimes, unexpected stories found their way to me. One of them was the extraordinary Palmen Collection. A hidden collection of classic cars, gathered over decades, untouched by the outside world. The images travelled around the world and were featured by international media including CNN and Top Gear.
Along the way, I also became an ambassador for Nikon and Sirui, two brands that have been part of my photographic journey for many years.
Today, all these different worlds come together in the Daanoe Experience Centre. Photography, art, books, technology, adventures and the stories behind the images all meet in one place.
And the journey is far from over.
From forgotten places to framed artworks.
Discover the world behind DAANOE.
Decay ignites the imagination
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