The irony of a wedding

When I was in Turkey I had the honour to go to a Turkish wedding with my 'abla Aynur' (my Turkish sister). A Turkish wedding is so different from our typical 'belgian' wedding.

In Turkey people are so excited, that thé only thing they do is dance all night long.

For me it was an experience never to forget. Cok tesekkurlar Aynur!

Creative assignment

For my creative assignment my ambition and aim was to combine light and brightness in a way you achieve a mysterious and uncovering effect.
The photographs are taken in a professional studio.

Doel a city of Belgium that never sleeps

Doel is the smallest city of Belgium, that is enduring some difficulties at the moment. In short form let's say it's due to bureaucracy... People of the village are given money by the government to live somewhere else. So that the government can build new plans to improve the economy and the overseas traffic in the canal of the 'Schelde'.

However some people have not yet sold their houses. So they're staying alive in a city of ghosts. Because the majority of people have decided to pack their backs and leave.

an asylum house in Linkeroever

The pictures below are my documentary pictures of an asylum house in Linkeroever. There was a very 'grimmy' sphere. I've only been there twice and both times just for a couple of hours. But I must admit that I've never been so moved by anything else.

People trying to fight to stay alive, try to hold on just with the thought they might stay in Belgium. They're people: a group which is combined with different cultures all together. How can it not be so difficult for them to stay optimistic?

Photography Turkey Erasmus

When I studied my bachelor journalism, I went to Turkey to do my internship in a radiostation of Mersin and I followed courses photography and photojournalism at the university of Mersin.

The reason why I've chosen for Turkey was to try to understand a different culture. My ambition is to become a foreign correspondent of the Middle East. My first steps towards that were, as I see it, to go to Turkey and try to understand a culture which is so different from ours. Not only because they have such a different religion but also because their traditions and customs are beyond we can imagine.




When I arrived their the cultural shock was a fact. But after a couple of weeks I got used to it. Althought it wasn't easy. The main difficulty I had to cope with was the language. Because I stayed in Mersin, which wasn't a touristic place. The people couldn't speak English that well at all. Other languages such as French or German weren't known either. So for me as a talkative person it was sometimes difficult.

Fortunately Turkish people are incredibly friendly and hospitable. I've never met such friendly, talkative, loving people before.




But there's a dualtiy in the Turkish culture. I might even say that there's a form of censorship. For example in Turkey you do not have acces to youtube due to a trailor of Ataturk which is claimed to be offending.

Another difficulty of Turkey is that they have a lot of different nationalities all together. I had a lot of Kurdish friends. And I will not suprise anybody if I say that they still feel as if they're still being supressed by the Turkish government. And aren't they?

Another twistpoint in my eyes is that gayminded people can't or won't be tolerated in the Turkish society.

The loneliness of a Turkish woman

Amnesty Internationel reports that the freedom of speech is not tolerated in Turkey at all. Journalists, sollicitors, writers are being prosecuted under an unlawful court. They are the victims of law pronunciation of random judges and accusers.

I'm wondering how the future of Turkey will look like. Insallah it will get better.
Whatever may, I will meet my friends again.

If you're interested in the report of Amensty International take a look on this site:

http://www.aivl.be/landeninfo/turkije#Rechten%20van%20lesbiennes,%20homoseksuelen,%20biseksuelen%20en%20transgenders











Île capitano

posé

Turkish kite runner

The world is my playground

A Fishermen's dream