The photographer looked back after the opening, where she guided the princess herself through her works.
“It was great fun, she was very interested,” says De Boer, who told the princess the stories behind the photos during the tour. “And I told her that there are many women in West Timor who have a Dutch name, and that I especially came across names like Wilhelmina and Juliana. She liked to hear that.”
All strong women
The women in the photos are all “strong women,” says De Boer. “It is women who take the initiative for change, for dealing with climate change. Women who learn from each other what to do when there is a water shortage, which crops do better,” says the photographer, who retired as a newsreader at the NOS Journaal in 2013.
The photo series fits in with her other work as a photographer, through which climate change runs “like a common thread”, she says. “That started in 2008, when I ended up at the North Pole as a photographer for the World Wildlife Fund as a photographer for the World Wildlife Fund. Together with journalist Babs Assink, we recorded stories of the Inuit, who were the first to experience problems from climate change. That’s where the seed was planted: I want to do this more often and away from NOS. Breaking out and having the freedom to do these kinds of things as a photographer.”