Five years ago Maarten van der Voorde came to live from Rotterdam in Second Exloërmond. Drenthe, his environment and the people he got to know in a special way through the lens of his photo camera. “I found out that there was many more behind the people.”
“We should have done it much earlier,” says the photographer about his move to Drenthe. “It’s wonderful to live here. The peace, the people, but especially the surroundings here.”
Van der Voorde mainly got to know that environment by going on the road with his camera. “I am concerned with reporting and documentary photography. So I am actually a digital storyteller. And every person has a story, I went looking for that. That’s how I came into contact with all kinds of people.”
One of those people is violin builder Peter Brandt from Assen. “I have been very often with him to photograph and follow his violin construction. I can’t play a note myself, so I have learned a lot from him. He completely broke up a violin from 1870 and put him back together, so that it was playable again. This has become a very nice project, really fantastic to do.”
Van der Voorde also made a report about an 88-year-old man from a number of villages away, with which he came into conversation. “I got into conversation with him and he told me that he has already had billiards from the age of 16.” The man said he had to stop four years earlier because of his physical. “I asked if he thought he could no longer play billiards. But he said: no dude, I had a fantastic time. He started telling afterwards and I started taking pictures very quickly, that has become a very nice story.”
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