Just like that, the new year has begun. Reason enough to look back on some of 2016’s highlights. A lot of travels, a lot of work, a very busy year. Yet, it was filled with great moments and produced good memories. So many things have happened and changed in my life and around it.

In September, Seraina and I went to New York City. It was my first trip there in a while and the first ever trip for Seraina, so I was super excited to take her to all the beautiful places and show her everything I love about this city. Or at least as much as we could fit in two weeks, which was quite a bit. And of course, we had to go and see Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge, Lady Liberty and all the other famous sights as well.

Back in August, my parents were kind enough to let me use their car for a few days so Seraina and I went on a 3-day trip to Italy, visiting four cities and one friend. First stop was the not so touristy but very beautiful city of Bologna, where we found a nice little room right next to the city center. The next day, we had lunch in Florence, before driving on to Siena to visit our dear friend Manuel at his parents’ wonderful country house. This place was magical.

I hadn’t been to New York City since September 2014. This September – two years later – I finally got to go back. Seraina and I bought a super cheap ticket and booked us a nice and cozy Airbnb in Bed-Stuy.
Luckily, we were able to schedule our trip so I could attend NYCWLK 2.0, a photo walk initiated by Johnny and Rebecca Patience. I didn’t attended the walk the previous year, neither have I been to LNDNWLK, so I didn’t really know what to expect. In addition to the walk, they offered a black & white photography and darkroom printing workshop, which I signed up for.

Buy prints from this post. Just a few days after I got back from Lisbon, I went to Paris with Seraina. Eiffel Tower, Montmartre, Le Marais… We did do a little bit of sightseeing, but our main focus was on exploring the city’s excellent and diverse food and coffee scene as well as just relaxing and taking a break. It would be my last time to shoot the Hasselblad for a few months. After we got back, I soon started to work on my web documentary series, which has pretty much taken up all my time. More about this soon.

Even though it’s such a wonderful camera, I haven’t used my Hasselblad more than a couple of times this year, what with all the old stuff I wanted to organize and post. I needed a break. I did shoot a few frames when I was in Lisbon, Portugal, in late January though. I’ll show you the ones that I like.
Lisbon is such a beautiful city. The last (and first) time I visited, I think I only stayed for two days.

Every time I return from a trip, I return to what I still believe is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I miss this place whenever I am away traveling, be it on paradisal beaches, in picturesque mountainous landscapes, or in the world’s most fascinating, bustling metropolises. This spectacular yet peaceful view of the city’s skyline with all the old housetops – the cathedral and the domes of the Bundeshaus standing out – in front of a seemingly endless chain of snowy Alps. It still takes my breath away over and over again after all these years and immediately evokes a feeling of home and belonging.

Buy prints from this post. Walking along the shore of the lake, no one’s around. We’re all by ourselves, confronted with water, wind, and weather. Everything quiet, except for the sound of cold rain. Big drops – too many to count – falling down the sky, breaking the surface of the water. The beauty of stillness, the absence of action.

Buy prints from this post. We arrived in Oxford early evening and left the next day in the afternoon, so we were there for less than a day. Nevertheless, I like to think that we have seen quite a bit of what the city has to offer. We started off with some quite good pizza and a couple of delicious craft beers. Our guide was Seraina’s childhood friend Mirjam, who lives and studies in Oxford and had invited us to stay at her nice little apartment. The next morning, Mirjam and her boyfriend Adam took us to a restaurant to have some big and delicious breakfast. Later, we were able to have a look at some of the famous universities’ facilities, we visited the Museum of Natural History, we took walks through beautiful green gardens, […]

It was last October that Seraina and I went to London with college. Apart from attending Power To The Pixel and visiting Frieze Art Fair, we ate tons of good things, drank too much coffee and surprisingly little beer. We went shopping, visited galleries, museums, the beautiful Columbia Road Flower Market and the busy Brick Lane Market. The first few nights we lived in a wonderful Airbnb apartment in Shoreditch, before moving to a hotel with the other guys. On the following weekend we went to Oxford to visit a good friend of Seraina’s, before coming back to London for a day and visit Priya, whom I’d met in Gothenburg a year ago.