Alle afleveringen
34 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
-
#74 - From chocolate factory to World Press Photo: How Cesar Rodriguez became a photographer at 30
4 november 2026 · 55 min
At Museum Hilversum I sat down with Mexican photographer Cesar Rodriguez, who won a World Press Photo award this year with his long-term series on climate change in Mexico. He submitted it on the last day, pays for most of his personal work with his own assignment fees, and only picked up a camera at 32. We talk about cold emails, editors who forget you exist, and why there's no rush to publish. Lees meer
What you'll learn in this episode
How a single Red Cross assignment on sea erosion grew into a six-year, largely self-funded project on climate change in Mexico, and why Cesar starts projects without a fixed end goal
How he pays for personal work by combining it with editorial assignments, adding a few extra days on location once the client has covered the plane ticket
How cold emails, the Eddie Adams Workshop and simply reminding editors that he exists led to steady work with The New York Times, Bloomberg and The Washington Post
Why he trusts one editor (Musuk Nolte) with all three of his photobooks, and how he deals with too many opinions on his edit
Why he stepped back from posting on Instagram, and why he thinks stories need time before they go out into the world
See the exhibition: World Press Photo at Museum Hilversum
We recorded this conversation at Museum Hilversum, the day after the World Press Photo Exhibition 2026 opened there. You can see Cesar's winning series on climate change in Mexico in the exhibition, together with the other winning stories and photos of this year's contest, until November 29. The museum is open every day from 11:00 to 17:00, so there's no excuse not to go.
Exhibition info: worldpressphoto.org/calendar/2026/hilversum-the-netherlands
Museum Hilversum: museumhilversum.nl
World Press Photo: worldpressphoto.org
Cesar Rodriguez: https://cesarrodriguezb.com/
Free webinar
Want to know what the photographers who keep growing actually do differently? In a free webinar, I walk you through the five patterns I see consistently, in this p…
-
#73 - Organising a photography event: what photographers can learn from a sold-out show
22 oktober 2026 · 38 min
The Amsterdam show was sold out, but only on the very last day. In this episode Kaat gives an honest look at what goes into filling a room, and what you as a photographer can take from it for your own book, exhibition or project: keep looking for what you can do, and know who you're doing it for. Lees meer
What you'll learn in this episode
Why people need more touchpoints today before they buy a ticket (or a book, or a print), even when what you offer is really good
Why you can't rely on the press anymore, and why you need to find your own ways to promote your work
How to speak to a broad audience without jargon and without getting too technical
Why every space and every audience asks for a different approach, and how to think about your own means in each situation
How an ideal client (an avatar with a name and a personality) helps you choose the right visuals, reels and words
Why small, almost invisible changes pay off more over time than one radical overhaul
Next stop: show at C-Mine GenkOn November 28th, De Donkere Kamer comes to C-Mine in Genk, Belgium. On stage: Nadav Kander, Michiel Hendryckx on beauty in resistance, Noortje Palmers with La Vie en Rose about homeless people in Antwerp, Pie Aerts with Coirón about the puesteros of Chilean Patagonia, Marieke van der Velde with the image column, a curator (more news soon) and three pitchers (you can submit your project here) Note that most of the evening is in Dutch. Coming with a group of more than ten? You pay half price. Tickets here.
Partner of this episode
Cameranu As a photographer you need more than creativity. You also need the right tools, whether that's a new lens or a camera you can rely on during a client shoot. The specialists at Cameranu think along with you and give you honest advice. As a listener of De Donkere Kamer, you get 10% off your next purchase with code DDK10 at cameranu.be.
-
#72 - Being present as a photographer: how to find calm in a busy photography practice
13 oktober 2026 · 14 min
For years Kaat was a pro at racing ahead: after a successful show, her head was already at the next one. During her conversation with photographer Eva Verbeeck she heard a sentence that stuck with her: "We're here now." In this short episode she shares why that sentence brings so much calm, even in a busy photography practice. Lees meer
What you'll learn in this episode
Why good planning can actually give you freedom, even when freedom is your biggest core value
The sentence Eva Verbeeck says to herself, and why so many ambitious photographers will recognize themselves in it
How to feel in your body what it does when you say "we're here now" out loud
Why always being busy with the next thing can take away your sense of pride
How to apply this in challenging times, when your photography practice keeps asking for new solutions
CTA: show October 16th
On October 16th, De Donkere Kamer is at Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam with a full evening about photography, by photographers. With Nadav Kander (The Edge of Things), Bieke Depoorter (The Beds I Slept In), Wilfried de Jong, Robin de Puy, Iris Sikking on the exhibition of Eva Besnyö, a visual column by Marieke van der Velden, and pitches by promising photographers. Tickets at donkerekamer.com/tickets.
Partner of this episode
Cameranu As a photographer you need more than creativity. You also need the right tools, whether that's a new lens or a camera you can rely on during a client shoot. The specialists at Cameranu think along with you and give you honest advice. As a listener of De Donkere Kamer, you get 10% off your next purchase with code DDK10 at cameranu.be.
-
#71 - Staying flexible as a photographer: how to adapt your photography business to a changing market
6 oktober 2026 · 22 min
Photography has always been a medium in flux, from digital cameras to the smartphone and now AI. In this episode, Kaat talks about an established photographer who sees his print sales declining and still doesn't freeze up. She also shares the question she asks herself after every setback: what is possible? Lees meer
What you'll learn in this episode
Why the question "what is possible?" changes your energy, and how to learn to switch within six seconds after a no
Why you need to know your numbers, so you can adjust before declining sales become dramatic
How you can use AI to free up time for your creativity, with the necessary caution around copyright and images
Why clinging to what worked five years ago can cost you your grip, your revenue and your clients
The attitude Kaat sees in photographers who last: willingness, commitment and consistency
VIP review session
Do you notice your photography business is changing, and do you want to adjust course before it gets dramatic? In a VIP review session you spend 180 minutes online with Kaat. Together you dig into your work and your business model, and you leave with a concrete plan. More info here
Show October 16th, Amsterdam
On October 16th, De Donkere Kamer comes to Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam, with Nadav Kander (exhibition The Edge of Things at Foam), Bieke Depoorter (new book The Beds I Slept In), Robin de Puy and Wilfried de Jong (first photobook Polaroid Man). Three promising photographers pitch their project live, Marieke van de Velde presents the image column, and Iris Sikking from the Fotomuseum Den Haag talks about the Eva Besnyö exhibition. Get your here
Partner of this episode
Cameranu As a photographer you need more than creativity. You also need the right tools, whether that's a new lens or a camera you can rely on during a client shoot. The specialists at Cameranu think along with you and give you honest advice. As a listener of De Donkere Kamer, you get 10% off your next purchase with code DDK10 at …
-
#70 - What if it's already good enough?
3 oktober 2026 · 22 min
How much of your energy do you give away to what others think of you? In this episode, Kaat shares why she started taking her own stage, why copying slows down your growth, and what a mentoring client with a corporate background taught her about the fear of not being good enough. Plus an exercise you can start today. Lees meer
What you'll learn in this episode
Why Kaat stopped giving away her stage and became the face of De Donkere Kamer herself, and what it takes to show your true colours
Why being yourself in your photography feels so much scarier than leading a company: criticism of your work feels like criticism of who you are
The difference between modelling and copying, and why what works for someone else doesn't have to work for you
How to stop giving your power away to other people's opinions, and why it has to be good enough for you first
A concrete exercise for photographers short on time: a daily walk with your camera as a fixed, non-negotiable moment
One-on-one mentoring
Do you recognise yourself in the photographer from this episode, who wants to be himself in his work but is afraid of not being found good enough? In Kaat's one-on-one mentoring, you work on your photography and your practice for six months, with someone who looks along with you, is honest, and helps you dare to show your own visual language. You start with a personal kick-off in Antwerp or Amsterdam. More info here.
Show October 16th, Amsterdam
On October 16th, De Donkere Kamer comes to Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam, with Nadav Kander (exhibition The Edge of Things at Foam), Bieke Depoorter (new book The Beds I Slept In), Robin de Puy and Wilfried de Jong (first photobook Polaroid Man). Three promising photographers pitch their project live, Marieke van de Velde presents the image column, and Iris Sikking from the Fotomuseum Den Haag talks about the Eva Besnyö exhibition. Get your here
-
#69 - From Belgium to 28 American States: Eva Verbeeck on the dream behind America's Girls
26 september 2026 · 1 uur 3 min
What happens when a girl from a small Belgian village chases her American dream, and then spends six years listening to the dreams of American girls? My guest today is Belgian photographer and filmmaker Eva Verbeeck. She had visited more than 45 countries before she turned 25, lived in the US for many years and now works from Amsterdam. Her portraits have appeared in Le Monde, National Geographic, The Washington Post, Der Spiegel and The Telegraph. Lees meer
We recorded this conversation at CC De Factorij in Zaventem, days before her exhibition America's Girls opened there. Eva photographed close to 400 girls and young women aged 6 to 18 in 28 states, always with a large format camera and never more than two negatives per girl. We talk about the claustrophobic feeling of growing up in a small town, why a war photographer's advice made her turn to a story of her own, why she chose not to publish the girls' personal stories next to their portraits, and why she cried at the printing press in Italy. She also shares how she deals with the loneliness of photography, why she chooses film over photography (or the other way around), and why she stays hopeful about the medium in times of AI.
What you'll learn in this episode
How a teenage dream in Tessenderlo, fed by magazine collages and pop culture, grew into a six-year project in the United States
Why the advice "tell a story that is of yours" made Eva step away from heavy photojournalistic assignments and turn to her own fascination
How she worked with a large format camera: self-selected participants, no Polaroids, and a strict rule of two negatives per girl
Why she chose to keep the girls' written and spoken stories private, and how that choice created a safe space for them to speak openly
What photography can do that film cannot, and why she still chooses to be hopeful about the medium in a time of AI
Free webinar
Want to know what the photographers who keep growing actually do differently? In a free webinar, I walk yo…
-
#68 - Intuition in photography: lessons from Peter van Agtmael and Bastiaan Woudt
23 september 2026 · 32 min
If intuition is so central to photography, why do we give it so little room? That question stayed with me after my masterclass with Magnum photographer Peter van Agtmael, in which he called intuition the core of his work. Lees meer
In this episode I look at what intuition is for a photographer, what drowns it out, and how you can call it up. I talk honestly about how I slip into autopilot during podcast interviews myself, and what happens when I let go of my preparation. I share what a photographer from Antwerp told me during a review: things are going well, the assignments keep coming in, and yet so much of it is autopilot.
From there I take you to Estancia El Condor in Patagonia, a five-hour drive from civilization, where I've been twice and came home different each time. I talk about the gauchos, about seven condors circling above our heads, and about Bastiaan Woudt, who, just like Peter, works from looking, feeling and letting it happen.
Workshop in Patagonia with Bastiaan Woudt (February 13 to 20, 2027): more infoQuestions, or want to spar about it? Send me a DM or email info@donkerekamer.com
Replay of the Peter van Agtmael masterclass: sign up hereMy episode with Bastiaan Woudt (in Dutch): listen here
Partner of this episodeCameranuBesides creativity, as a photographer you also simply need the right tools, whether that's a new lens or a camera you can rely on during a client shoot. The specialists at Cameranu think along with you and give honest advice. Go to cameranu.be and use code DDK10 for 10% off.
More on mentoring, masterclasses and workshops, go to
What you'll learn in this episode
What intuition really is: accumulated experience that works faster than your thinking, which is why you can only explain afterwards why an image works
What drowns out intuition, from your smartphone and inbox to other people's feeds, and why you then mostly end up making what you already know
What autopilot looks like in Kaat's own interviews, and why the conversations in wh…
-
#67 - Live from Arles: Harry Gruyaert on the love affair with photography that never ends
17 september 2026 · 56 min
My guest today is one of the first photographers in Europe to work entirely in color, and the first guest to return to this podcast for a second time. Harry Gruyaert once dreamed of becoming a film director, until pop art and a trip to Morocco in the late 1970s pulled him toward photography instead. He has been a member of Magnum Photos since 1982 and has photographed the United States, Morocco, Europe, India and his own country, Belgium, in books including Made in Belgium and Roots. Lees meer
We recorded this conversation at Hotel du Forum in Arles, where he has been coming for more than forty years, with his daughters and his seven-year-old grandson Elio close by. Harry is currently showing Sense of Place at Les Rencontres d'Arles, alongside a new book, and a second, more retrospective exhibition is running at Camera in Turin. We talk about what it means to stay excited about a place you already know, why he calls photography a love affair with its own ups and downs, and why the pictures he missed, a scene he saw without a camera, a roll he shot with no film in it, still stay with him decades later. He tells me about the printing process he shares with his assistant Albin, why he moved from Kodachrome to digital, discovering jazz at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair, and why he still calls himself a professional rather than an artist. We also talk about the coincidences that keep finding him, from Bieke Depoorter to Saul Leiter, and about the trust he puts in instinct over words.
What you'll learn in this episode
Why Harry finds it harder to stay excited about a place the longer he knows it, and how he keeps rediscovering Morocco, India, New York and Belgium after decades of returning
Why he insists he is a professional and a craftsman, not an artist, even after more than forty years as a Magnum member
How the printing process with his assistant Albin, and the recent switch from Canson to Hahnemühle paper, is as much a part of the work as taking the picture
Why the phot…
-
#66 - Pattern recognition for photographers: how to spot your stuck patterns and flip them (part 2 with Tony Robbins)
15 september 2026 · 28 min
Last episode I took you through five insights from Tony Robbins' seminar Unleash the Power Within. By popular demand, here's part two, because there's one insight I wanted to unpack much further: pattern recognition. Lees meer
In this episode I zoom in on two patterns I recognize in myself, patterns I also see constantly in the photographers I work with. The first is about control and safety, and how I build up resistance before I've even had the chance to feel anything. The second is about how hard I find it to truly close something off before starting something new, from an exhibition to a shoot to an entire season of my life.
Patterns aren't always big, but once you learn to recognize and flip them, they can have huge consequences, for your life, your business and your photography.
What you'll learn in this episode
Why pattern recognition is, according to Tony Robbins, the foundation of every major transformation, and how that applies just as much to your photography practice as to your life
How Kaat recognizes her own pattern of control and a strong need for safety, and how she learned to feel first and judge later
Why Kaat finds it so hard to truly close something off before starting something new, from an exhibition to a goodbye to a new season of shows
How to build in a moment, as a photographer, to consciously close off a project or a shoot, and why that shows up in your photos if you skip it
Why small patterns can have the biggest consequences once you learn to recognize and flip them
Free webinar, five patterns of top photographersWhich patterns keep showing up in successful photographers? Kaat bundled five of them into a free webinar (just refreshed, with new examples), based on conversations with internationally renowned photographers. Sign up here for free
Show October 16th, Amsterdam
On October 16th, De Donkere Kamer lands at Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam, with Nadav Kander, Bieke Depoorter, Robin de Puy and Wilfried de Jong. Three up-and-coming ph…
-
#65 - Carolina Arantes, National Geographic Explorer, on First Generation, post-colonial identity and photographing women in France
10 september 2026 · 46 min
My guest today is a Brazilian visual storyteller who lives between France and Brazil. Carolina Arantes grew up in São Paulo, studied photography and journalism, and later earned a master's degree in cultural project development. Questions of gender identity and the lasting effects of colonial history run through her work, which she develops in personal projects alongside the communities she photographs. She has received the Firecracker Grant and the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation Grant, was invited by the Centre Pompidou for the thematic year Elles Font l'Art in 2020, and has been a National Geographic Explorer since that same year. Her work is part of the BNF collection and has appeared in the New York Times and National Geographic. Her book First Generation was shortlisted by LensCulture for best photobook in 2023, and her project Tombamento won the Human Rights Grant from Fundo Brasil. Lees meer
We recorded this conversation live at Les Rencontres d'Arles, where her exhibition First Generation was on show for the first time in its complete form: eight years of portraits, interviews and found family archives, built around the daughters of African immigrants in France. Carolina tells me how she only allowed herself to call herself a photographer at 27, how a workshop with photographer Christopher Morris changed the course of her career, and why she built the project around listening before shooting. We talk about growing up between an artist mother and a business-minded father, what it means to belong to a country that doesn't always recognize you as part of it, and why editing, not shooting, is the hardest part of her process. She's also honest about the financial reality of staying in documentary photography, and what she still hopes to have contributed in five years.
What you'll learn in this episode
Why it took Carolina until she was 27 to call herself a photographer, even though she'd been shooting since her teens, and what changed when she moved to France
How a cha…
-
#64 - 5 insights from Tony Robbins' UPW seminar for photographers and entrepreneurs
8 september 2026 · 56 min
Last week I sat in an arena in Cologne with 15,000 people, at Tony Robbins' seminar Unleash the Power Within. Four days, from early morning until late at night, together with five other entrepreneurial women from my Female Leaders club. Lees meer
In this episode I take you through five insights I brought home from there, and they apply just as much to your photography practice as to your life. Pattern recognition, and how a pattern of carelessness once got me stuck in a long insurance case. Repetition is the mother of all mastery, and why talent matters far less than the reps you put in. Proximity is power, and why the people around you help decide how far you get. Where focus goes, energy flows, something I even feel when I take a bend on my bike in the Alps. And peak state, and how you can shift it in a snap.
Do you find this kind of insight useful? Let me know, because there might be a part two coming.
What you'll learn in this episode
What pattern recognition is, and how a pattern of carelessness once got Kaat stuck in a long insurance case around the Edward Bertels exhibition
Why "repetition is the mother of all mastery" and how reps, not talent, make the difference between photographers who keep growing and photographers who get stuck
What "complexity is the enemy of execution" means, and why you need to break big goals into pieces to actually get them done
Why "proximity is power" and how the people around you, personally and professionally, help decide how far you get
How "where focus goes, energy flows" works, with a concrete example from cycling about taking a bend downhill
What a "peak state" is and how you can train it with a simple ten-minute morning exercise
Free masterclass, five patterns of successful photographers
Which patterns keep showing up in successful photographers? Kaat bundled them into a free online masterclass, based on conversations with dozens of international photographers. Sign up for free.
Patagonia workshop
In February, Kaat is …
-
#63 - How to Build a Personal Brand as a Photographer, Step by Step (2026)
2 september 2026 · 28 min
Last time I told you why personal branding matters more than ever. Today I'll show you how to actually approach that, as a photographer, in 2026. I take you through my own path: starting a podcast as long form content, showing myself on my website, writing an about page (without AI, please), and figuring out what truly sets me apart from other photographers. I talk about a photographer I coach one-on-one who has the gift of putting people at ease, and about another who is a storyteller and suppressed that for a long time. I explain why I believe there are too many photographers who don't position themselves, and why a personal brand doesn't need to appeal to everyone to work. And I announce my strategy day: normally 1,500 euros, this week still at 799 euros, with code strategie. Lees meer
What you'll learn in this episode
Why long form content, like a podcast or a blog, is the best first step to build your personal brand, and why Insta stories are the opposite of that
Why an about page on your website builds so much trust with a client, and why you write it yourself instead of letting AI generate it
How to discover what makes you unique, in your image choices, your editing, your client contact, or a gift like putting people at ease
Why photographers who don't know what sets them apart will never reach the right clients, no matter how good their photos are
Why Kaat believes there are too many photographers, and why that's exactly why a personal brand matters so much
How, like Stefan Vanfleteren and Rinus Van de Velde, you build an entire universe around your work instead of just a webshop, an exhibition or a book
Why a personal brand doesn't need to appeal to everyone, and why that's exactly the point
strategy day
This week I'm putting my strategy day in the window, just once: a full day, one-on-one, in Antwerp or Amsterdam, lunch included. You choose the themes we dig into together, from personal branding to your portfolio, your website or your book project. Normal…
-
#62 - Personal branding for photographers: Why It Will Matter More Than Ever in 2026
1 september 2026 · 27 min
I’m going to tell you something you might not expect from someone who’s been sharing her personal story in her content for years: I wasn’t really into personal branding myself. For years, I built De Donkere Kamer without ever putting a face to it. In this episode—part 1 of a two-part series—I’ll explain what made me change my mind and why personal branding matters more today than ever before. There’s never been so much content, never so much AI-generated clutter, and an audience that’s both more critical and harder to engage than ever before. I’ll talk about my own boundaries—what I do share and what I never will—about the conversation with my husband Rik that revealed just how much the platform has come to define “me,” and about the photographer who contacted me to travel to Patagonia with him, based purely on a single personal episode. Personal branding doesn’t mean showing off your home or your family. It means making your perspective, your choices, and your taste visible—because that’s the only thing no one can take away from you. Lees meer
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- Why Kaat resisted personal branding for years, and what ultimately changed her mind
- Why people today seek trust in a face and a name before they buy, and what that means for you as a photographer
- What personal branding is—and isn’t: not a selfie culture, not oversharing, but making your perspective, your choices, and your taste visible
- Why photographers so often think their photos should speak for themselves, and why that’s no longer enough today
- How Kaat sets her own boundaries in what she shares, and why those boundaries actually provide peace of mind rather than limitation
- Why photography, as a medium in crisis, offers so much room to stand out precisely because of that
My strategy day
This week, I’m offering a one-time special on my strategy day: a full day of one-on-one work where we’ll tackle the topics you want to address, from positioning and personal branding to your port…
-
#61 - What a trip to Alpe d'Huez taught me about letting go (and why I didn't quit)
27 augustus 2026 · 37 min
This summer I set off on my bike from our house in the Auvergne, with Alpe d'Huez as the finish line. Four days, 500 kilometers and roughly 7,500 meters of elevation gain, on my own, from one chambre d'hôte to the next. I did it to cheer on my husband Rik, who climbed the col together with thirty colleagues from Mediafin for Climbing for Life, in support of the Diabetes Liga. Lees meer
In this episode, I take you along. Not as a travel report, but as a mirror. Because everything I ran into along the way, nerve pain in my foot that slowed me down from day one, an Oura ring flagging overtraining, a route I'd misjudged, a thunderstorm on the final climb, is something I recognize one-to-one in what I see every day with the photographers I coach. And in myself, as an entrepreneur.
I'll tell you how I dealt with a body that wasn't cooperating, why pushing through is not the same as forcing yourself, how you let go of control without giving up, and why pausing to acknowledge a win matters just as much as the win itself. And I land on my biggest core value: freedom. Do you recognize something of yourself in pushing through when things get hard? Then this episode is for you.
Highlights from this episode
The starting point: why Kaat cycled to Alpe d'Huez, for Rik and Mediafin's Climbing for Life
Day one: 155 kilometers and over 2,000 meters of elevation gain, nerve pain in her foot, and an Oura ring flagging overtraining
The decision not to stop, and why "ten kilometers at a time" worked
Why photographers stop too soon, right before the momentum arrives: "reculer pour mieux sauter"
A misjudged route to the chambre d'hôte in the Vercors, and why letting go was the only option
The final climb to Alpe d'Huez, in a thunderstorm, crossing the finish alone
What the trip confirmed about freedom as her biggest core value, and why that's the reason Kaat became an entrepreneur
Coming to Patagonia?
Want to experience that combination of travel, challenge and depth yourself, camera in…
-
#60 - Paolo Woods on photography, research and building long-term projects | De Donkere Kamer Podcast
25 augustus 2026 · 58 min
What do you do when a subject simply isn't photogenic? Paolo Woods, born in The Hague and raised in Florence, built his entire career around that question. From an investigation into the oil industry to a book on tax havens and the five-year project Happy Pills on the pharmaceutical industry, he keeps choosing subjects where his first reaction is "oh no, what am I actually going to photograph here." In this episode, recorded during Les Rencontres d'Arles, Paolo talks about why research is his most important tool, how his mother unknowingly shaped his obsession with text and image, and why he spent four years as artistic director of the photography festival Cortona On The Move. Lees meer
Intro
I recorded this episode during Les Rencontres d'Arles, with Paolo Woods: photographer, researcher, and artistic director of Cortona On The Move since 2022. His projects never take the obvious subject. He seeks out exactly the things he first thinks are impossible to photograph. From oil to tax havens to the pharmaceutical industry, he keeps finding a language to make the invisible visible.
What you'll learn in this episode
Why research is Paolo's most important tool for turning non-photogenic subjects into photographable ones.
How he led Cortona On The Move for four years, and why he chose one strong yearly theme instead of "the best of photography."
Why a lack of access, as with Federico Vespignani's work on Gaza, can actually produce stronger work.
What the five-year project Happy Pills reveals about our obsession with control and happiness.
Why, after years of collaboration, he's now working on his first fully personal, solo project.
About the guest
Paolo Woods was born in The Hague in 1970 to Dutch and Canadian parents, raised in Florence, and later lived in London, Paris, Haiti and Ivory Coast. He started out running a photography gallery in Florence and then built a career around long-term, research-driven projects: from Un Monde de Brutes (2003, on the oil industry) and…
-
#59 - Why that restlessness during your holiday has nothing to do with summer
20 augustus 2026 · 35 min
Do you feel restless the moment you go on holiday, while your business simply quiets down? In this solo episode, Kaat walks you through the difference between taking rest and actually experiencing it, and explains why a summer income gap is rarely a coincidence. She shares how she finds rest herself, not by sitting still, but by staying in motion, why the classic work-life balance doesn't work for her, and which questions you can ask yourself to figure out what your ideal holiday actually looks like. Lees meer
From there, she dives into revenue planning: how to calculate in advance what buffer you need for your holiday weeks, how to make your photography practice scalable, and why entrepreneurship runs in seasons. She closes with a personal message about belief: what you believe about yourself and your craft eventually becomes your reality.
An episode for every photographer who wants more rest this summer, and no more surprise income gaps next year.
What you'll learn in this episode
What rest means to Kaat personally, and why she doesn't believe in a classic work-life balance
Which questions you can ask yourself to figure out what your ideal holiday looks like
How to build a revenue plan so holiday weeks stop causing panic
The difference between an action plan and loose actions like "posting more on Instagram"
How to make your photography practice scalable through recurring revenue
Why your beliefs help shape what you actually achieve in your business
The Daily Frame – Kaat's summer podcast series, 28 days with 21 short episodes, made to keep photographers moving and creative throughout the summer. €10. Link in the show notes.
Our podcast partner!
CameranuFor honest advice on lenses and cameras you can rely on during a client shoot. Go to cameranu.be and use code DDK10 for 10% off.
Ready to work on your photography or your business? At donkerekamer.com you'll find everything about mentoring, masterclasses and workshops.
1:1 mentoring: donkerekamer.com/mentor
M…
-
#58 - From Magnum Photos to the Banlieue: William Keo on building bridges through photography
18 augustus 2026 · 51 min
Recorded live at Les Rencontres d'Arles, this episode brings you into conversation with World Press Photo winner William Keo, a French photographer born into a family of Cambodian refugees. His work has taken him from NGO assignments in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon and the Syrian refugee crisis, to conflict zones in Iraq, Syria, Ukraine and Israel/Palestine, and eventually into Magnum Photos, where he was represented from 2021 to 2024. William talks openly about being an introvert in an industry that rewards extroversion, about the years he spent testing his own limits as a young photojournalist, and about the project closest to his heart: Extra Muros, a deeply personal document of the French banlieue where he grew up. For this project, he received this year's World Press Photo Award. Together, Kaat and William talk about resilience, why photographers are terrible at editing their own work, why he believes a photo book outlasts everything else, and what it takes to build bridges between your images and the people who will never walk into a gallery. Lees meer
What you'll learn in this episode
How William turned a low social battery and years of shyness into a way of connecting quickly and honestly with the people he photographs.
Why he believes photographers are among the worst editors of their own work, and how an outside eye (Peter van Agtmael among others) reshaped the edit of his portfolio.
What three years inside Magnum Photos taught him about identity as a photographer, and why he chose not to pursue full membership.
How Extra Muros grew from small chapters shot among friends and neighbours into a World Press Photo-winning body of work about the French banlieue.
Why he's convinced a photo book, not an exhibition or a magazine cover, is what actually resists through time.
About the guest
William Keo (b. 1996, Paris) is a French photographer born into a family of Cambodian refugees. His work explores migration, social exclusion and intercommunity intolera…
-
#57 - What a week at the end of the world does to your photography, your business and the way you see
13 augustus 2026 · 33 min
What happens when a photographer who's never taught before finally says yes? In this episode, Kaat takes you to Estancia El Condor, 40,000 hectares of untouched land at the foot of the Andes, where in February 2027 she's hosting, together with Dutch photographer Bastiaan Woudt, his very first workshop. Eight spots, one estancia, no phone signal, and a photographer whose work hangs in the Rijksmuseum and the Getty Museum. Lees meer
Kaat talks about the two trips she's already made to this place herself, about the condors with a four-meter wingspan, about why it took her years to convince Bastiaan, and about what happens to the way you see when you're cut off from the world for a week. She also shares what this means for your photography at a time when more images are generated than could ever actually be photographed.
An episode for anyone wondering if this is the year to go somewhere almost nobody goes.
Bastiaan Woudt has never taught a workshop before. Until now. In this episode, Kaat talks about the very first workshop by this renowned black-and-white photographer, held at an estancia in Patagonia so remote there's no phone signal. Eight spots, a week without distraction, and everything that does to your photography and the way you see.
This episode is a personal update on the brand-new photography workshop to Argentine Patagonia that Kaat is hosting in February 2027, together with photographer Bastiaan Woudt. It's the first time Bastiaan has ever opened up his process to a group, and Kaat explains why this place, this photographer, and this moment come together.
Why Bastiaan Woudt said no for years, and what finally changed his mind.
What makes Estancia El Condor so special: 40,000 hectares, condors with a four-meter wingspan, and zero phone signal.
How a week without distraction changes your photography and the way you see.
What to actually expect from the workshop, from the daily reviews to the day on horseback.
How admission works, what it costs, and how to ap…
-
#56 - "It's not my voice, it's ours": Shirley den Hartog on carrying Erwin Olaf's legacy forward
11 augustus 2026 · 1 uur
For 25 years, Shirley den Hartog was photographer Erwin Olaf's manager, and today she leads the Estate Erwin Olaf as its director. In this episode, she looks back on his lifelong dream to be exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, a wish that came true two years after his death with the exhibition Freedom. Lees meer
Shirley talks about the arrangement that defined their partnership for almost three decades: she took care of the business, he took care of the art. She shares how that trust shaped his work, why she chose not to hire someone else to run his legacy, and what it means to make decisions for an artist who is no longer here.
We also talk about the Catalogue she's now building, the ethical questions that come with archiving decades of work, and how she thinks about AI, sustainability and the future of photography.
A conversation about trust, freedom and what it means to carry someone's life's work forward, not as a duty, but as a shared voice.
What you'll learn in this episode
How Erwin Olaf's lifelong dream of a Stedelijk Museum exhibition came true, two years after his death
Why Shirley never knew what his artworks cost, and how that protected him as an artist
What changes when you have to make decisions for someone who's no longer there to ask
Why she chose to become the visible director of his estate, instead of hiring someone else
How she thinks about AI, the ethics of archiving and the future of photography
"It's not my voice. Our voice was together always. So I think if I talk, it's us always. It's not me. It's not him. It's us."
About the guest
Shirley den Hartog met Erwin Olaf in 1997 as an intern and became his manager and close friend for 25 years. Since his passing, she has led the Estate Erwin Olaf as director, responsible for his legacy, his foundation and his artistic archive.
Free webinarWant to know what the photographers who keep growing all have in common? Join Kaat's free webinar and learn the five things they do remarkably con…
-
#55 - Nadav Kander: The electricity between two pictures
6 augustus 2026 · 1 uur 10 min
My guest today grew up in Johannesburg and has lived and worked in London since the 1980s. He started photographing at thirteen and learned part of the craft in the darkroom of the South African Air Force. He won the Prix Pictet in 2009 for Yangtze: The Long River, and that same year The New York Times Magazine dedicated an entire issue to his series Obama's People. In 2019, Steidl published The Meeting, his first book devoted entirely to portraiture. This September, a new exhibition called The Edge of Things opens at FOAM in Amsterdam. Lees meer
We recorded this conversation in his home on Ibiza, and it took a direction I hadn't expected. Nadav Kander talks about the years he spent going back through his archive with curator David Campany, and what it means to let images from different decades speak to each other rather than treating each project as a closed chapter. He explains why he never sets out to tell a story, he makes one, and why a picture is only ever completed once a viewer brings their own history to it.
What you'll learn in this episode
Why Nadav spent the last few years revisiting his entire archive with David Campany, and what he found there that he had missed twenty years earlier
Why he says "I don't tell stories, I make stories," and what that means for how he shows his work
What eight minutes with President Obama actually looks like when three hours of preparation come before it
Why stillness and a kind of quiet tension are what make a photograph work for him
What a childhood memory of being afraid of dark water has to do with his Color Fields work today
How his wife Nicole's focus on climate science is starting to press on what he photographs next, and why he's struggling to bring that into his work without turning it into documentary
We also hear about his upcoming trips to Greenland and back to the South Africa he grew up in.
About Nadav Kander
Nadav Kander (born 1961, Tel Aviv) is a photographer based in London since the 1980s. He won the Pri… -
#54 - Back from summer break, with news from the end of the world
4 augustus 2026 · 37 min
After a full month of summer break, De Donkere Kamer is back. I'm taking you through my summer between France and Belgium, from Les Rencontres d'Arles to a conversation with photographer Nadav Kander in Ibiza, and sharing my big news along the way: a photography workshop in Patagonia and a new season of live shows. Lees meer
At Les Rencontres d'Arles, I felt a photography world wrestling with uncertainty and change, partly because of the heat and the wildfires in the region. From now on, I'm also splitting De Donkere Kamer into two channels: my English interviews, like the one with Nadav Kander, will move to the English podcast channel, while this channel stays Dutch-language.
From February 13 to 20, 2027, I'm organizing a multi-day workshop with photographer Bastiaan Woudt at Estancia El Condor in Patagonia, a remote 40,000-hectare ranch on the Chilean border. With a small, international group of eight photographers, I'll combine photography, hiking and horseback riding with sessions on both the creative and the business side of your practice.
My autumn and winter are taking shape too. My live shows return on October 16 at Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam, with among others Nadav Kander, Robin de Puy, Bieke Depoorter and Wilfried de Jong, followed by shows on November 28 at C-Mine in Genk, February 7 at the Minard Schouwburg in Ghent, and April 14 at CC De Factorij in Zaventem.
I'm also opening registration for my free webinar: The 5 things top photographers constantly do to grow. In this live, 120-minute session I walk you through the recurring patterns I see in top photographers worldwide, drawn from hundreds of interviews and mentoring sessions, and how you can turn that insight into action in your own work. You can save your spot here
This episode comes to you with support from Cameranu. I go to Cameranu for my own gear. They think along with me, from a new lens to a camera I can rely on during a client shoot. As a De Donkere Kamer listener, you get 10% off with cod…
-
#12 - Clément Chéroux, Director of Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson: On curating, archives and keeping a legacy alive
1 augustus 2025 · 43 min
My guest today is the director of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson in Paris. Clément Chéroux is a French photography historian and curator who previously held senior curatorial positions at the Centre Pompidou, SFMOMA and MoMA in New York. We recorded this conversation live at Les Rencontres d'Arles, the photo festival that first mesmerized him decades ago, and where he studied photography himself before turning to research and curating. Lees meer
We talk about what a curator actually does, and why Clément insists he is not an artist even though he trained as a photographer. He tells me how a chance encounter on a train at sixteen, a photo exhibition installed inside the carriage, pulled him into this world, and why he chose quantity and research over making a single image at a time. We go into what it means to inherit the archive and the legacy of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Martine Franck, why he left a chief curator position at MoMA to take on that responsibility, and how the decisive moment still matters in the age of AI and smartphones. He also shares the small archival find, a family photograph, that changed how he understood an entire body of work.
If you're curious how the person behind some of photography's most important exhibitions actually thinks, this one is for you.
What you'll learn in this episode
What a curator's actual role is between the artist and the audience, and why Clément believes a curator should never think of himself as an artist
How he decides when to push a photographer toward an idea and when to step back, and why trust takes time to build
The story of the small family photograph in an archive that revealed a photographer's twin brother, and how it changed the reading of his entire body of work
Why he chose researching, collecting and curating over photographing himself, and how that choice was really about quantity versus a single image
Why he isn't afraid of the sheer quantity of images we're overwhelmed with today, and what that has…
-
#11 - 6 business lessons from La Marmotte: 177km, 5,500m and four mountains in the French Alps
26 juni 2025 · 20 min
Last Sunday I rode La Marmotte, one of the toughest Gran Fondos in Europe: 177 kilometers, 5,500 meters of climbing, and four legendary mountains (the Glandon, the Télégraphe, the Galibier and the Alpe d'Huez, finishing on its famous 21 hairpin bends). My goal wasn't to race. It was to finish. And somewhere between Bourg-d'Oisans and that last hairpin bend, I found six business lessons I have to share with you. Lees meer
In this episode I take you along on that climb, not as a cycling story, but as a mirror for what it actually takes to build a photography business. Why the road is long and quiet before anyone notices you. Why willpower, not motivation, gets you through the hardest stretch. Why slowing down is sometimes the only way to reach the top. Why you don't have to do this alone, and why you shouldn't let other people's opinions talk you out of your own path. And the lesson I almost forgot: why taking care of yourself is not optional, it's your survival strategy.
If you've ever wanted to quit right before your breakthrough, this one is for you.
What you'll learn in this episode
Why the road to success is long and quiet, and why that exact stretch, with no applause, no likes, is what separates the ones who keep going from the ones who quit
How to use willpower as a mental muscle, with a concrete example of how Kaat talked herself through the pain on the Galibier
Why "slower is faster," and how deliberately slowing down actually gets you to your goal faster than trying to do everything at once
Why surrounding yourself with the right people (mentors, community, experts) beats reinventing the wheel on your own
How to protect yourself from other people's opinions, fears and advice, and why there is no one-size-fits-all path
Why rest and sleep aren't a luxury but your survival strategy as an entrepreneur
My mentoringReady for your own next climb? In my 1:1 mentorship, we map out exactly where you are now, where you want to go, and what you need to get there, so yo…
-
#10 - Lucy Conticello (Director of Photography, M Le Monde) on photojournalism, AI and chairing World Press Photo
20 mei 2025 · 54 min
What does it actually take to chair the World Press Photo jury, the most watched photography award in the world? In this episode, I sit down in Paris with Lucy Conticello, Director of Photography for M, the weekend magazine of Le Monde, to find out. Lucy walks me through her unlikely path from studying archaeology in Rome to becoming one of the most respected photo editors in the industry, and why she never wanted to be a photographer herself. We talk about how M balances hard news with fashion and lifestyle, how Le Monde is navigating generative AI in a newsroom (including a mistake that made it into print), and what it was really like to chair this year's World Press Photo Awards jury: the regional voting system, the hidden clicker votes, the two weeks that get under your skin. We also dig into the funding crisis freelance photojournalists face today, and why Lucy believes the industry needs a shared fund to keep important stories alive. A conversation for anyone who wants to understand what happens on the other side of the assignment. Lees meer
What you'll learn in this episode
Why Lucy chose editing over shooting, and why she believes most photographers struggle to edit their own work
How M Le Monde balances hard news with fashion, lifestyle and design in one magazine
The difference between traditional AI and generative AI in a newsroom, and why Le Monde bans the latter entirely
What actually happens inside the World Press Photo jury room: regional juries, consensus-building, and the hidden vote
Why freelance photojournalists are increasingly self-funding their own stories, and what Lucy thinks needs to change
What she looks for in a portfolio review, and why matching photographer to reviewer matters
About the guest
Lucy Conticello is Director of Photography for M, the weekend magazine of the French newspaper Le Monde. She started her career as a junior assistant photo editor for the Italian news weekly Liberal, before studying photography practice and history i…
-
#9 - Four skills to grow as a photographer and entrepreneur
1 januari 2025 · 24 min
In this solo episode of De Donkere Kamer, Kaat walks you through her own yearly planning and shares four skills you can train to really move forward in the year ahead, both as a photographer and as an entrepreneur. She starts from her own experience of the past year, when a schedule that was always too full left her no room to think about direction or growth, and explains how she broke that pattern. Lees meer
What you'll learn in this episode
Why taking a critical look at your current situation is the starting point for any good yearly plan, and which question you need to ask yourself first.
How to make choices faster, even if you're naturally inclined to keep everyone happy or to keep pushing decisions ahead of you.
Why regular self-reflection helps you spot blind spots before they slow down your business.
How to deal with the tension around a big decision, and why that tension often points to something you truly want.
What kind of mentor Kaat wants to be in 2025, and which photographers her 1:1 mentoring is for.
Links and resources
Cameranu (partner of this episode): Cameranu is Kaat's go-to for photography equipment. Go to cameranu.be and use code DDK10 for 10% off your next purchase.
1:1 mentoring with Kaat: donkerekamer.com/mentor
CONNECT membership: donkerekamer.com/connect
Contact: info@donkerkamer.com
Do you recognize yourself in the big dreams and ambitions Kaat talks about in this episode, but don't want to work on them alone? There's currently one spot open for February and two spots for March in the 1:1 mentoring program. Go to donkerekamer.com/mentor or email info@donkerkamer.com to talk through your path forward.
-
#8 - Lara Gasparotto: "Photography was always a refuge"
5 december 2024 · 45 min
In this episode I step away from my usual setup for something new: my very first live podcast recording, in front of an audience who got to ask their own questions once the conversation wrapped up. My guest is Belgian photographer Lara Gasparotto, whose intimate, dreamlike images move between tenderness and melancholy, always playing with the relationship between light and silence. Lees meer
In this episode, you'll hear about:
Lara's Italian roots and how growing up in Liège, a city she describes as one that was "always trying to be destroyed," shaped her artistic path
Her sixth book, Refuge, made during a period when she went through depression for the first time, while friends of hers were fighting at the front in Ukraine
Why she resists the word "artist" and finds it too pretentious to claim, even after ten years with gallery Stieglitz19
How drawing and painting on her own photographs became a way back to something she loved as a teenager, before she ever picked up a camera
Nature as a compass in her work, the "wolf pack" of friends from Liège who shaped who she is, and becoming a mother at three and a half years into this new chapter
Her social engagement, from a project in Ukraine to work in Congo to an upcoming collaboration with the Schunck Museum in Indonesia on the region's colonial past
About Lara Gasparotto
Lara Gasparotto (born 1989, Liège) is a Belgian photographer represented by Stieglitz19 for the past ten years. She studied at Saint-Luc École supérieure des arts and picked up a camera for the first time at fifteen, handed to her by photographer Thomas Chable. Her work has been exhibited internationally and often draws comparisons to Sally Mann and Francesca Woodman, though her own influences come more from painting, film and literature than from photography itself.
This episode's partner: Cameranu
This episode was recorded in collaboration with Cameranu. They understand better than anyone that as a photographer you need more than creativity alone, …
-
#7 - Tomas van Houtryve on Notre-Dame, borders and photography as a language
31 oktober 2024 · 1 uur 8 min
In this episode, Kaat sits down in Paris with Tomas van Houtryve, the Belgian-American photographer and filmmaker who has lived in the city since 2006. Tomas was selected by National Geographic to document Notre-Dame after the devastating fire of 2019, and his book on the project comes out at the end of October or beginning of November. They talk about that years-long, almost intimate relationship with the cathedral, about language and national borders as a recurring thread in his work, and about why he picks a different technique for every project, from drone photography to 19th-century wet plate collodion. AI, curiosity as a driving force, and his new research into the relationship between people and nature in the Alps also come up. Lees meer
What you'll learn in this episode
How Tomas got access to Notre-Dame, and what it meant to spend months climbing around it in a hazmat suit.
Why he deliberately switches between techniques, and how each one opens a different window onto the same subject.
How, inspired by Hokusai's 36 views of Mount Fuji, he found a fresh way to look at one of the most photographed monuments on earth.
Why borders (language, land, religion) have fascinated him for years, from the Belgian language border to North and South Korea.
How he thinks about the future of photography now that AI-generated images are getting harder to tell apart from real ones.
About the guest
Tomas van Houtryve is a photographer, filmmaker and researcher, born in 1975 and based in Paris. His work weaves together investigative journalism, philosophy and metaphor, and has been recognized with honors including the Pulitzer Fellowship, the Hasselblad Foundation Research and Development Award, the ICP Infinity Award and a World Press Photo Award. He is a fellow at Columbia University's Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris and is currently working on a project about the shifting relationship between people and nature in the Alps.
This episode is brought to you by Camer…
-
#6 - Jonas Bendiksen (Magnum Photos) on AI, fake news and the Book of Veles
1 september 2024 · 52 min
In 2021, Magnum photographer Jonas Bendiksen published a photo book that looked in every way like classic photojournalism. He waited for someone to notice that something was off. That moment never came. Not a single critical comment, not even from his own colleagues at Magnum. The Book of Veles tells the story of a Macedonian town that made money from fake news during the 2016 US election, but the people in the photos didn't exist. They were computer-generated. Jonas kept the hoax going for six months and eventually had to create a fake profile himself just to set his own unmasking in motion. Lees meer
In this conversation we talk about how Jonas grew up in Tønsberg, why he joined Magnum Photos in 2004, and why he moved his family from Manhattan to a small community in Norway to protect his creative process. We also talk about the panic behind The Book of Veles, why he refuses to keep working in the AI space even though it would be the smart commercial move, and what he thinks photography can offer that AI cannot replace.
In this episode:
Why Jonas made a fully fictional photo book with AI-generated images and let his own peers believe it was real journalism
How he had to plant a fake profile to force his own hoax into the open
Why he believes photography's problems started long before AI, and what he means by "we photographers have always been the biggest machine learning system of them all"
Why he moved his family from Manhattan to a small village in Norway
Why fixing his sailboat means just as much to him as taking pictures
About Jonas Bendiksen Jonas Bendiksen began his career at nineteen as an intern at Magnum Photos in London, before leaving for Russia to photograph the fringes of the former Soviet Union. He joined Magnum Photos in 2004 and has worked for Geo, Newsweek, Vanity Fair and National Geographic. With The Book of Veles he created one of the most talked-about experiments at the intersection of photography and AI. He lives in Norway with his family, spl…
-
#5 - Lee-Ann Olwage on documentary photography, dementia in Africa and World Press Photo
31 mei 2024 · 53 min
My guest today just won World Press Photo Story of the Year for Valim-babena, her project about dementia in Madagascar made for GEO Magazine. Lee-Ann Olwage is a South African documentary and portrait photographer whose work centers on identity, collaboration and celebration, and in this conversation she takes us into the four years and five reporting trips it took to find a way to tell this story with tenderness instead of shock. Lees meer
What you'll learn in this episode
Why Lee-Ann decided never to take the most shocking image she could have made, and what that reveals about how she approaches a story.
How The Big Forget came to be, her long-term project on dementia across different African communities, and why so many local languages have no word for the disease.
What changed for her when her own father was diagnosed with dementia, just days before her reporting trip to Madagascar.
Why she calls herself lucky, while also having stood outside a prison for six months trying to get access to a story.
How nine years of working as a set decorator on film sets shaped her visual style as a documentary photographer.
Her advice to young photographers: build your own visual voice, expect a lot of no's, and find other work that buys you the freedom to make what you love
About the guest
Lee-Ann Olwage is a documentary and portrait photographer from South Africa, born in Durban in 1986. She won World Press Photo Story of the Year 2025 with Valim-babena, and previously won World Press Photo Awards in 2020 and 2023. She is a member of Native Women Photograph and African Women in Photography, and her work has appeared in major international newspapers and magazines. Her work centers on identity, collaboration and celebration, using photography as a form of co-creation.
This episode is brought to you by Cameranu. They understand better than anyone that as a photographer you need more than creativity, you also need the right tools, whether that's a new lens or a camera you can …
-
#4 - Fiona Shields (The Guardian): on trust, AI and choosing the images that matter
1 april 2024 · 52 min
In this episode Kaat sits down with Fiona Shields, Head of Photography for The Guardian and The Observer, recorded in Amsterdam while Fiona was chairing the World Press Photo jury. Fiona has led the photo desk at The Guardian for 25 years, and she takes us through what that job actually looks like day to day: running a global team publishing 24/7, staying close to photo editing herself a few days a week, and making fast calls on images that reach millions of readers. Lees meer
The conversation covers AI and the trust problem it creates for photojournalism, why The Guardian now works with local photographers instead of flying someone in to parachute into a story, what a busy photo editor needs from your pitch (send a PDF, not a WeTransfer link), and how Fiona deals with the emotional weight of covering conflict week after week. She also shares how she landed in photography almost by accident, after a teacher pushed her toward a journalism course, and why she still believes a single photograph can do something a video can't.
What you'll learn in this episode
What it takes to lead a photo desk that publishes across print and web, 24 hours a day
How AI is changing trust in photojournalism, and how The Guardian is thinking about verification
Why local photographers now get picked over parachuting an outsider into a story
How to pitch a busy photo editor so your email actually gets opened
How Fiona processes the emotional weight of editing images from Gaza, Ukraine and other conflicts, without losing the ability to do the job
About the guest
-Fiona Shields is Head of Photography for The Guardian and The Observer. She grew up in Scotland, trained as a journalist in London and discovered early on that picture editing, not writing, was where she belonged. She has spent 25 years at The Guardian, and in 2024 she chaired the international jury of the World Press Photo Contest in Amsterdam. Along the way she has overseen the paper's coverage of 9/11, the Iraq and Afghanistan war…
-
#3 - Edward Burtynsky on photographing the cost of progress
1 maart 2024 · 1 uur
Intro Lees meer
In this episode Kaat sits down with Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky in London, right after the opening of his biggest retrospective ever at the Saatchi Gallery. They talk about the furnace room where his father taught him to develop his first roll of film, the helicopter doors he still flies with off, and the four decades he has spent photographing what industry does to the natural world. Edward also opens up about running his own print lab since 1985, about carrying both the artist and the entrepreneur in himself, and about why he still believes in hope as a form of action.
This episode is sponsored by Cameranu. As a photographer you need more than creativity, you also need the right equipment, and Camera Nu's specialists give honest, personal advice, whether you're looking for a new lens or a camera you can rely on during a client shoot. Use code DDK10 at cameranu.be for 10% off your next purchase.
What you'll learn in this episode
How Edward got his first camera and darkroom for 25 dollars from a widow in St. Catharines, and what his very first roll of film taught him about the way he still shoots today.
Why he decided as early as 1983 to dedicate his career to the relationship between humans and nature, long before climate change became a mainstream topic.
How he builds his large murals today, locking a drone into a fixed position and stitching together dozens of high resolution frames.
Why he has run his own print lab since 1985, and what that taught him about running a business.
How he balances being an artist with leading a team of production staff and curators, and a studio that ships exhibitions around the world.
Halfway through, Kaat shares the five things the top photographers she works with, through this podcast, her masterclasses and her 1:1 mentoring, all do consistently, and how you can apply them yourself. It's free, sign up here.
About the guest
Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer known worldwide for his large scale …
-
#2 Joumana El Zein Khoury on rebalancing World Press Photo, AI, and why culture is a basic need
23 februari 2024 · 56 min
Joumana El Zein Khoury has spent her career building bridges between culture under pressure and the people who need to see it. Born in Beirut in 1975 and now based in the Netherlands, she previously led the Prince Claus Fund and worked with the Arab Image Foundation in Beirut before becoming executive director of the World Press Photo Foundation in 2021, right in the middle of the pandemic. Lees meer
In this episode, Joumana talks about:
Why she calls herself a "democratic dictator," and how she led World Press Photo through a full organizational transition
Why the foundation introduced selection criteria requiring at least one local and one female or non-binary winner per region, and what actually changed as a result
How World Press Photo deals with AI-generated and AI-edited images in a photojournalism contest, and where it draws the line
Why she believes culture is as basic a human need as food or shelter, and what that means for displaced and refugee communities
What it's like to look at thousands of the world's most difficult images every year, and how she finds her own balance
Why the World Press Photo archive, turning 70 next year, might be her biggest personal project yet
This episode is a look inside one of the most influential organizations in photojournalism, and the woman rethinking whose stories get told, and how. You can find more of World Press Photo's work, exhibitions and archive at worldpressphoto.org.
This episode of De Donkere Kamer podcast is proudly supported by Cameranu, specialist in cameras, lenses and photography gear.
FREE WEBINAR: The 5 things top photographers constantly do to grow. Discover the real, proven patterns top photographers use to stay inspired, finish their projects, and keep their creative identity intact, without losing themselves in a crowded market. Reserve your free spot now
Want personal, one-on-one feedback on your own photography? Book a review session with Kaat, a tailor-made 90-minute conversation about your pract…
-
#1 Gaël Turine on photographing climate change, addiction in America, and staying loyal to slow storytelling
18 december 2023 · 1 uur 1 min
My guest today is Belgian documentary photographer and photojournalist Gaël Turine. Raised in a family of documentary filmmakers, he found his calling early: a childhood year spent on a small island in the Indian Ocean planted a lifelong need to travel, observe, and tell stories through images. Decades later, that same instinct led him to turn his camera on his own country, walking the flooded river valleys of Wallonia for two years to document the long, slow aftermath of a climate disaster most of the world had already stopped watching. Lees meer
We talk about why he chose black and white panoramic landscapes over the human portraits he's known for, what it means to fund and shape a personal project from scratch, the ephemeral but intense encounters he has with the people he photographs, and why he still doesn't fully trust short-form video and algorithms as a home for serious documentary work. We also get into his television work for Arte, his dream project on cooperatives around the world, and the farmhouse in the Ardennes he escapes to when the work gets too heavy.
This episode is proudly supported by Cameranu, my partner for camera gear in Belgium and the Netherlands. It's where I send the photographers I work with when they're looking for honest advice and equipment that can actually keep up with serious work. As a listener of this show, you get 10% off with code [CODE].
In this episode you'll learn:
Why Gaël chose black-and-white panoramic landscapes instead of portraits to document the Wallonia floods
How he secured government funding for a two-year personal project, and what he offered in return
What "activism through documentary" looks like when the story is about your own country
Why he still doesn't trust algorithms and short-form video as a home for serious photojournalism
How his farmhouse in the Ardennes shapes both his creative process and his ability to disconnect
About the guest:
Gaël Turine is a Belgian documentary photographer and photojournalist… -
Welcome to De Donkere Kamer podcast!
1 december 2023 · 1 min
Welcome to De Donkere Kamer. My name is Kaat Celis, I'm a photographer and entrepreneur myself, and this is the podcast for photographers who want to go further, creatively and in business. Lees meer
Twice a week, I bring you two new episodes: one solo conversation where I share my own reflections on creativity, on building a photography practice, and on what it really takes to keep choosing this path, and one in-depth interview with some of the most respected names in international photography, from Anton Corbijn to Christopher Anderson to David Campany to Nadav Kander.
This is the new English home for those conversations, and you don't have to wait for episode one. There's already a full archive waiting for you, years of interviews with some of the biggest names in photography, so start wherever speaks to you most.
If you're a photographer who wants to grow, both behind the camera and in your business, you're in the right place. Subscribe, and I'll see you in the next episode