Notes on Images #001 - An introduction
Let me introduce myself.
Dear friend.
Welcome to my newsletter Notes on Images! Awesome that you’re here. In these letters I will share my thoughts and knowledge about photography and film. I will update you on projects I work on, commissioned work, inspiration and other stuff about these two subjects.
I will publish these newsletters once a month and you can read them whenever you want and wherever you are. How cool is that!
In the first newsletter I will introduce myself so you get to know a bit more about me!
I am Goitzen van der Veen, a 22 year old photographer and filmmaker living near the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands! After I graduated high school in 2016 I started a study in film called Audio Visual Specialist (film and media). There I found my passion for storytelling, film and photography. I learned about the basic aspects of how to make a film from start to finish, worked on a lot of fun projects and had so many interesting internships! I really enjoyed my time there and met a lot of new people, some of whom I still work with this day!
During my time at AV-Specialist we got an assignment to tell a story about someone only with three portraits. I decided to tell a story about my grandfather. One of the portraits I took is the photo below. I remember when I saw the photo on my computer I felt something, the way he looks into the camera hit me the first time I saw it. The photo told me so much about how he was at that time, that I was hooked on the power of telling a story through still images.
After I graduated in 2020 and shot this photo of my grandfather, I decided I wanted to learn more about photography. At that point I leaned more towards making photographs and wanted to discover more about it. So I applied for the University of Applied Photography & Image Communication in Amsterdam. Here I learned more about the technique, telling stories with photography and it shaped me more as a photographer and storyteller.
After two years of studying in Amsterdam I decided it was time to start a new chapter. I left school and started as a freelance photographer and filmmaker. This is where I am at right now. The fun thing about being freelancer is that is it gives me more space to work on all kind of different projects. What I really enjoy!
Hopefully you know a bit more about me now! In the next letters I will share more about my knowledge and thoughts on photography and film.
Have a good day, evening or night and remember to always let yourself be inspired!
Much love!
Goitzen van der Veen
Takeaway from writing this letter:
If I look back now at making the photo of my grandfather I learned that just by starting out and doing you learn and discovering new things.
You have a question, a comment or you want me to talk about a subject? Let me know!