“A special person and important photographer.” This is how documentary maker Wilbert Smit describes the recently deceased photojournalist Piet den Blanken (71) from Breda. With his work Piet fought against injustice and gave a face to problems in the world that are often forgotten. It was reason for Wilbert to make a documentary about him. “You don’t meet many people in the world like Piet.”
Piet den Blanken was a photojournalist known for his extraordinary images of injustice. Behind his lens were mainly migrants along the European borders, but Piet also photographed abuses and social inequality in Latin America.
He was also a photographer who really put people in the center and left nothing behind, according to documentary maker Wilbert Smit. “He showed how people around them managed to persevere, despite all kinds of difficult circumstances. He also showed things that went wrong, such as people who suddenly disappeared or were murdered. His photos tell the whole story, as realistic as can be. “
The special thing about the photographer, according to Wilbert, was that he was not guided by earning money. “He went to places most photographers wouldn’t go. He could also have gone to familiar areas where you know those photos get posted faster. But he didn’t choose the money. He chose what he himself felt was an important subject.” I think that’s very special.”
Wilbert and Piet had known each other since the 1970s, when they were both members of the Kritiese Filmers film collective in Breda. This group made its own films and showed them in various places, such as schools or training centers. The two worked together for a short time and then kept in touch.
“At one point I ran into him again and then I said: Gosh, shouldn’t a movie be made about you?” Wilbert recalls. He wanted others to see how special Piet and his work were. “Piet had to think about it for a while, but in the end he thought it was a nice idea. And then we started.”
Shooting started in 2017. The documentary shows how Piet started in Brabant and how he developed into the global photojournalist he was at the end of his life. “If you’ve seen the film, you have a sense of who he was as a person, but also how involved he was with his subjects.”
The documentary premiered in September 2020, Piet was also there. “He liked that the stories he wanted to tell with his photos received more attention.”
Three weeks before his death, the two were still in contact. “I sent him a message to tell him that the documentary would be shown at Omroep Brabant. He responded that he liked it, and that it was good for each other. At the time we thought it would be a ‘normal’ screening. ” Shortly afterwards Piet fell into a coma, last Monday he died in a hospital in Guatemala.
“It has now become a kind of memento of him completely against the intention. But that is not a bad thing. You could say that the documentary was made just in time, otherwise we would only have had his photos.”
The documentary ‘Factual but not objective’ can be seen on Omroep Brabant on Sunday 10 April at 10:22 am and at 4:44 pm.