‘alles is er al’ / ‘everything is already’ there is my graduation project. I used to have lots of ideas for my end series. Then a book and a pandemic came in between and I somehow lost my inspiration. Suddenly, I didn’t know what to make or where to start anymore. The fact that we were in lockdown mode did not help. Then I remembered the lesson from my previous book ‘Play’: just begin, it always turns into something. With this in mind, I picked up my camera, went outside and just started taking photos in my neighborhood, with no purpose other than to get started. Similarly, I started taking objects from my house or found on the street to my studio to photograph. I just followed what I felt like shooting, not thinking in terms of good or bad, just doing [moving], focussing on my nearby surroundings.

What started as a seemingly random collection of images eventually transformed into a new series. A series that is about how I don’t need to reach in order to create because everything is already there, right in front of me. All I have to do is see it. A series also about seeing and cherishing the beauty in the small, the simple, the everyday.

‘alles is er al’ was designed by Marjolein Heije, words are by me and Tom Ruben.

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