In the summer of 2023 photographer Christopher Ward had an idea: to approach strangers on the street and ask them if he could take their portrait.
Twelve months later this simply idea - Model Strangers - had become a global phenomenon. In that time he grew to one million followers on Instagram and had lots of international media coverage.
Wim (Willem Pieter) Jansen (1950) is a minister for the liberal wing of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. He was born and raised on a farm in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, a hamlet with the beautiful name of Paradijs (Paradise), growing up surrounded by open spaces and the beauty of nature.
Wim retired in Delft in October 2015 and since then, he has written many columns for the online magazines Volzin and Nieuwwij, and for Ongrond, a new website about mysticism. Every now and then he gives a lecture about one of his books or a book he is yet to write.
And, leading church services more often again than he did at the beginning of my retirement. He became a pastor primarily because he wanted to create space for people in their vulnerable moments and at the pivotal points of their lives: the pastor as a drain.
Now that he is retired, Wim is primarily looking for silence and solitude.
Henk Helmantel (1945) is a Dutch painter. He is considered one of the northern realists and the independent realists. Christianity is central to his daily life and work.
In the period after 2009, Helmantel came under much criticism following a broadcast of a television programme Met niets begonnen (“Started with Nothing”), in which he spoke about his financial success. Especially in the north of the Netherlands, where the financial crisis was clearly noticeable, the fact that the artist spoke extensively about his financial assets in combination with his religious beliefs led to considerable criticism. This was reinforced by his subsequent statements about the death penalty and his criticism of other religions.
Barend Cornelis Koekkoek (1803 –1862) was a Dutch landscape artist and lithographer, and the most famous member of the Koekkoek family of painters.
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| Self Portrait with Beret |
Barend grew up in an artistic environment and came to be known during his lifetime as the “Prince of Landscape Painting” and was regarded as the founding father of Dutch romantic landscape painting. The recipient of endless awards and decorations, he counted among his clients King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV of Prussia, Tsar Alexander II, and King Willem II of the Netherlands.
The flat Dutch countryside could not satisfy Koekkoek's romantic soul for very long. ‘Surely’, Koekkoek wrote in 1841 ‘Our fatherland boasts no rocks, waterfalls, high mountains or romantic valleys. Proud, sublime nature is not to be found in our land’. With that in mind, in the summer of 1834 he moved to the old Ducal capital of Cleves, Germany, where he found his ideal subject matter in the region of the Ahr, Ruhr and Rhine.
Found on Etsy.com: Belgian Handmade Berets.
Yann Arthus-Bertrand (1946) is a French environmentalist,
activist, journalist and photographer.
He has also directed films about the impact of humans on the
planet. He is especially well known for his book Earth from Above (1999) and
his films Home (2009) and Human (2015).
It is because of this commitment that Yann Arthus-Bertrand
was designated Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme
on Earth Day (22 April 2009).
Since 2008, he has participated in the board of directors of
the Fondation Chirac, a foundation launched in 2008 by former French President
Jacques Chirac in order to promote world peace through five advocacy
programmes, two of which deal with environmental issues such as access to fresh
water, desertification and deforestation.
"When we travel, we see the unusual and start to think more deeply about life".
Tõnu Seilenthal (1947) is an Estonian linguist (Fenno-Nugricist) and lecturer.
Tõnu Seilenthal's main research areas are the historical morphology of Finno-Ugric languages, Khanty, Hungarian, Hungarology, and the contrastive study of Hungarian and Estonian.
He is also an active participant in the Finno-Ugric tribal movement. He is a board member of the Fenno-Ugria Foundation and is active in several cultural societies of related peoples.
At the end of the sixties, Seilenthal acted as a consultant
for Lennart Meri’s film “The Waterfowl People”. He has been visiting
Finno-Ugric peoples in Russia since 1966. His work with them has also brought
him into contact with the Finnish-Russian Society in Finland. The situation and
activities of the Society have now changed due to the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Ellen Tamm (née Ellen Linno, 1927 –2018 ) was an Estonian jewellery designer and art educator.
She graduated from Tallinn 10th Secondary School in 1945 and in 1948 she entered the Tallinn State Institute of Applied Arts; graduated from the ERKI in 1954 with a degree in metal construction.
Ellen Tamm worked at the Tallinn Art Horn Factory from 1954
to 1957. From 1957 to 1983 she worked as a lecturer at the Estonian Academy of
Arts and Sciences and from 1983 to 1989 as a foreman.
Christophe Bonnière is a fine art photographer of people, nudes
and landscapes, which are then printed on silk or canvas.
Christophe Bonnière works with a view camera, a replica of an old model from 1900 using real 10,5 cm by 12,5 cm gelatin silver film.
Christophe develops his own photographs using emulsions, such as silver gelatin, which he makes himself.
His exhibition People of Ariège is a nostalgic series of portraits of the people from his ancestral home. Colourful, solid and frank people who lived in the mountains practicing agriculture, who loved a stiff drink of pastis and a good laugh!
Those times are now long gone. The modernization of life and society just does not produce the same old characters.
In a world where quality products seem to grow more expensive by the day, I was delighted to find one of my all time favourite berets (@ South Pacific Berets) extremely cheap compared to the competition, which made for a pleasant surprise.
“Simon Goze and his comrades were shot by the Germans at the age of 27 in the courtyard of the Sainte-Ménehould Hospital on 30 August 1944; the town was liberated in the evening " wrote his great-niece, Martine Lambard.
“The sisters occupying the hospital begged the Germans. They were ready to give their lives in exchange for those of the young people. Nothing could be done: the Germans murdered them, a bullet in the head for my great-uncle. Today, nothing remains of this barbaric act. The place is deserted and forgotten. Tribute to all these young people who died for France and for our freedom. Simon, we send you all our love."
Gullegem is a town in the Belgian province of West Flanders.
The territory of Gullegem was already inhabited in the Neolithic, from which time several arrowheads of flint were found. A cremation grave dates from the Celtic period. In 1976 Roman wells were also found from the 1st century AD, in which some jewelry and coins were found.
The flax industry became very important for Gullegem from the 15th century onwards. Around 1838, several inventions were made in the region that greatly improved linen weaving. In the 19th century, the industrialisation of the flax and linen industry emerged, although there were still many home weavers for a long time.
On October 19, 1914, German troops caused great damage to the village.
After the Second World War Gullegem expanded rapidly.
A Michelin representative delivers the goods with his Vespa scooter combination. 1953
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