I am a Winner!

Dear Jaap,

CONGRATULATIONS on being a Winner at the 12th Annual Black & White Spider Awards. 8,121 entries were received from 74 countries and your work received a high percentage of votes overall. Certainly, an achievement, well done! The Jury represented the industry's biggest names and tastemakers including The Armory Show, New York; Christie's, London; McCann, Singapore; GQ, New York; Hot Docs Film Festival, Toronto; Y&R, Malaysia; Sharon Calahan, Pixar Animation Studios, Emeryville; Bloomsbury Auctions, London; and Donald Schneider Studios, Berlin who reviewed the entries online before making their nominations and honoring 672 title awards and 1034 nominees in 31 categories. The Awards could not have wished for a better group of professionals to work with. Congratulations once again, we wish you a most successful photography year.

Basil O'Brien Creative Director

Irish notes (6)

Sometimes it was raining cats and dogs. Sometimes I walked long enough and my feet were tired (good shoes are essential for a photographer!). On top of a bus is a wonderful spot to get another perspective of street life. Up: Dublin 15/9/13 1.47 pm. Middle: Dublin 13/7/19 4.20 pm. Under: Dublin 17/8/27 5.19 pm.

Irish Notes (5)

Sometimes a rambling photographer is confronted by situations where huge colorful areas form a big chance to capture an image with a lightly alienating meaning. In Ireland people often use strong colors in painting houses and walls. Maybe as a therapy against the often-grey light.   But if there is sunlight, the light has often a very intense quality.  Up: Derry, 17/8/28 4.58 pm, Middle: Monkstown 17/8/26 11.26 am, Under: Cork, 12/9/15, 10.30 am.

Irish Notes (4)

Some impressions from the Botanic Gardens in Belfast. (http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/leisure/parks-openspaces/Park-6614.aspx). As a photographer I am always trying to make an own reality from the reality of these premises, by carefully selecting the elements I capture. I do not show you everything that was there. Up: Belfast 17/9/2 11.28 am. Middle: Belfast 17/9/2 11.36 am. Under: Belfast 17/9/2 11.26 am.

Irish Notes (3)

Interesting to see how letters and text can play a role within a photographic image. Sometimes as the main subject matter, sometimes as text in a kind of image from a comic strip, sometimes the capture of what is happening in the photograph is a kind of  illustration of the text in the same photograph. To make it perfectly clear, these texts were not added by means of photoshop. (Upper picture: Dublin 2017/08/25 4.15 pm, middle: Belfast 2016/09/08 2.56 pm, underneath: Sligo 2015/o9/06 4.53 pm).