ABOUT

Papillon Fotografie

BACKGROUND

Back in the day, not too long ago, when photography meant putting a roll of film to its cradle in the camera, and having maybe 36 chances to take a good photograph, Maurits was a restless young boy of 12, curious about this thing called a camera. He experimented with it until soon enough his father discovered photographs in his film that were unmistakably not his.

His father then, worked for long period of time, in the Middle East and brought back paintings, artifacts, but most influential of all, his stories. This struck Maurits’ curiosity to see the world, and get to know other peoples and their cultures that were different from the only one he knew.

“A photo is half as interesting if it doesn’t tell a story.” His father used to say.

Maurits was encouraged to train under a photojournalist working in the local village newspaper in his early adult life. With his mentor, from event to event, they captured photographs and developed them in the dark room.

And as any novice would, he took day jobs waiting on tables in Paris, got into business trading in Hong Kong, then guiding tourist groups in Vietnam and Cambodia in the early 90’s. Together with his brother he travelled the Palestenian countries, and Iraq.

“I took my camera with me everywhere I went, shooting everything from cliché to the mundane, to spontaneous subjects. Soon in the 90’s I started a small career of it by photography for promotional materials: brochures, posters, and the like. And finally, on weekends and holidays took my bike through the narrow walkways in Manila and took my most interesting photographs yet”.

Speaks: English, Dutch, German, French.