For fifteen years, Pieter Hoogeveen photographed all Telstar home and away games. Last Friday was the last time for Telstar’s in-house photographer to take pictures. “Now I’m purchasing a season ticket in the East stand and I’m taking a seat next to my wife and son,” said Hoogeveen.
Age is starting to count for the 65-year-old resident of Velserbroek and that was the main reason for his decision. All this time he was photographing voluntarily and combined that with a full-time job. “Then I was sometimes awake for 22 hours and that cuts quite a bit at my age,” says Hoogeveen.
At home with the North Hollander, he proudly shows his first camera. A small model, but later the camera gear got bigger. That presented a problem, because at away games he preferred to photograph from the away section. “At Excelsior they said that was not allowed. I then asked whether it was allowed with a smaller lens, but I never had an answer to that,” he looks back.
On the mat
That same week he was called by Telstar to visit the club. “I thought I had done something wrong, but it was a nice conversation. The club wanted to accredit me for away games and in exchange they wanted some pictures of me.” That is how he started photographing at the football club.
One million photos
In his own words, he has taken about a million photos at Telstar in fifteen years. From competition matches to practice games and from theater evenings to team presentations. Pieter Hoogeveen was always there. Yet he is not most proud of one photo, but of another achievement. You can see it in the report above.