Venster

Forest park has 17 entries, but without entering the parc, we watch through 17 windows how trees bring peace in the life of a thousand local residents. Students, artists, lawyers, art collectors and architects enjoy the green around them on a daily basis. Green cities make people happy. Through these windows we see the green and we see life. (full documentary)

Consonica

For months in a row, Louis collected evidence of the large electronics consumption during his daily morning walks. Fridges, televisions, micro-wave ovens… on a daily basis everything ends up in the Brussels streets. The huge boxes decorate the sidewalk in front of the houses of proud new owners of the biggest flatscreen tv. From a documentary impulse this collection opened the door to a larger research project and series of publications in MO Magazine. Through this project the rejected objects full of valuable resources are being placed in the forefront again. (full documentary)

People turning their back to our electronics. On daily morning walks I documented dumped electronics in the streets of Molenbeek and Schaarbeek, before they get picked up by recyclers or new owners.

Together with other journalists we investigated how military and police uniforms are being made in Romania. Workers in the textile factories make the minimum wage, which does not cover half of their monthly cost of living on the Romanian countryside. Shouldn’t we expect public institutions to show a good example of procuring products that allow for decent living standards in the production countries? What could the European Commission do to stop this kind of situations from happening within the EU region? The work has been published in Knack in 2020. (full documentary)

Cabbage is kool, from farmer to plate

Let’s take a journey from the biological bearded farmer in West-Flanders to your plate in a Brussels top restaurant. It is not an evidence, but small scale farming can survive in Europe and top-chefs like Nicolas from the vegetarian restaurant Humus x Hortense can flourish using these products. (full documentary)

Turning, Captain.

Workers on the Thames are tough. Life on the water is cyclical and moves along with the tides of the Thames. The watermen and lightermen-families have been working for centuries in harmony with this movement of nature. They navigate with the current towards high-tide, moving the barges up-river and picking up cargo. Then sailing off and benifitting from the tide pushing the boats back downstream into the sea, towards low-tide. Work on the Thames comes with moments of action followed by long waiting times and rest. Cyclically repeating over and over again. Staying calm in storms, engine problems and accidents. Staying calm while staring at the river, watching the tides move up and down. (full documentary)

Royal Rebellion

On 12.10.2019 Extinction Rebellion organized a protest action in Brussels. They called it the Royal Rebellion and wanted to occupy the royal garden to request the Belgian King Filip to declare a state of ‘Climate emergency’. It is clear that the activists of XR are perceived by some as a threat for society and our current civilization. On the other hand the activists feel the opposite about climate sceptists. A dialogue and healthy form of debate needs to exist. Police violence will do no good to the increasing tension within this debate. (full documentary)

Climate protests

As our planet is facing a major challenge through climate change, Belgians also went to the streets. This series is a selection of the different protests that are taking place. The diversity of participants is striking. Not only plenty of organisations participate, but also families and individuals that normally never participate in manifestations are increasingly present. (full documentary)

FARC re-integration through tourism

As part of a guerilla army, members of FARC have spent their lives in a state of war. UNDP is one of the organizations trying to support the re-integration of these people into Colombian society. A new tourism project wants to attract tourists to former FARC regions like the Meta region with its impressive nature. The purpose is to have FARC members guide tourists, take care of the basic hotel, restaurant and other activities. The mission of this project is to have all participants of the re-integration program self-sustained in income and food supply by end 2018. An ambitious goal which not all participants will reach, however still worth to strive for. (full documentary)

Colombian impact by export production – Bananas

While spending some time in Uraba, Colombia’s main banana zone I discovered the true complexity of this multinational fruit export business. The impact through growing business and employment still goes under a shadow of death treats to activists, cocaine and paramilitary activity. (full documentary)

The value of small scale farming – Coffee

The next Colombian president Duque does not value small scale farming and wants to push multinational export activities. In this series of photographs I visited a well functioning local cooperative that creates local value and income through high-quality coffee. (full documentary)

Colombian workers on the palm oil plantations in Los Llanos work hard to protect their social rights. When the complete village works for one company it is hard to defend personal rights in case of accidents, health issues and minimum wages. (full documentary)

Handling change through cooperations – Cacao

Not all cacao comes from Africa. Colombia’s cooperations are producing high-quality cacao all year round, providing income for Tolima’s farmers. In the past years these people faced direct impact of local climate change, paramilitary terrorism and FARC violence. (full documentary)