Public Republic

Mariana Velichkova’s interview with the photographer Els Boudewijnse

Els Boudewijnse was born and raised in the Netherlands. Lived in a beautiful rural little village until age twenty-three; these surroundings nurtured her love of nature. She can remember walking around with a small camera at eight years old, taking pictures of the goats, chickens, turkeys and occasional horse that walked the streets. That’s her earliest memory when it comes to photography.

She is fascinated by light more and more and look at the old masters to learn. Caravaggio, for example, is one of her favourites. Talk about art! Especially /who/ or /what (/and /why) /he makes the subject of the light. And the /how/ is truly stunning. She also likes Rembrandt. True masters.

Her interests are: photography, film, theater, books, writing, art, music, nature, animals, natural light, history.

When and how did you get attracted to photography?

I have always been attracted to ‘images’. I remember walking around with a camera as young as eight years old so nothing has changed much.

What is the project you are working on now?

More of the creative and theatrical kind but close to my heart at this moment are a couple of photos about loss and death, a universal theme and also a very personal one. I think I need it to express some experiences and feelings.
I’m looking for models! So if you know any … ? 😀

Democracy

Seriously. Models of all ages that care more about emotions and making a statement than ‘looks’. Models daring to be vulnerable to their core and unafraid to show and share it.

Your images are based on technicalities, intuition, inspiration, all of it…or something else?

Definitely intuition and inspiration. Technicalities… ? There’s too much to learn still; I honestly wouldn’t dare to even hint at my alleged technical skills.

Dogma

Besides photography what else are you interested in?

Reading is definitely one of my favourite hobbies. From Donald Duck to Shakespeare, so to speak. Recently finished Anne Rice’s Vampire series. Her ‘Armand’ is quite an intriguing character. It would be interesting to see if I’d be able to catch the essence of his struggle of living for eternity in one photo.
Film, theatre, performance arts, writing, animals, art, music, singing, nature, observing, history, friends, fun… Oh dear, so much!

What is your art dream?

Have fun with it. And after that, being able to translate whatever is in my mind into photographs, working with people who share and/or challenge my ideas and hopefully touch others by doing so, in one way or another.

I’m quite impressed, to say the least, by the work of the old painter Caravaggio, for instance. His compositions and light, yes, but he also never did anything the way it was supposed to be done. Take a look at his ‘David with the head of Goliath’! So intense, raw and vulnerable all at the same time. Wow.

What is your advice to anyone who loves photography?

Do it. Take a camera and shoot. You’ll take sixty picture and perhaps only like one but that way you’ll learn and discover what subject(s) you are attracted to and like to photograph. Experiment, experiment, experiment. Don’t you just love the ‘delete’ button?

And you can, of course, look at work of others – photographers, painters, sculptors, anybody. It doesn’t matter. As long as you just try.
Oh, and most important of all – have fun!!!
Fail, grumble, laugh and have fun!/