Affordable photo art, part of the proceeds of which go to earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria. It is an initiative of photographer Caspar Claasen from Oostzaan. For a hundred euros you can buy a print from a professional Dutch photographer through his site. The action started on Monday and it is immediately storming: Claasen has already collected more than 30,000 euros. “You buy something beautiful, but then you also do something good for others.”
Fifty Dutch professional photographers have joined Caspar Claasen’s campaign. “I’m a photographer myself, so I know people from the circuit. Almost everyone I approached wanted to participate in this initiative.” All prints sold on the site of Photography Forever costs one hundred euros, 65 percent of which goes to Giro555 and the rest goes to the printing costs.
You don’t just buy a photo on this site. “People are only allowed to sell by invitation. So I selected the photographers myself. I also paid attention to the quality of the photo they donated and whether the photo works as a separate print,” says Caspar. One of the photos that is currently selling well is by press photographer Marcel Molle from Landsmeer. His photo shows a small house from Ilpendam in the morning sun.
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Photographer Tessa Posthuma de Boer from Broek en Waterland also donates a photo for this campaign. She made that photo especially for Photography For Good. In a interview with the Noordhollands Dagblad she says: “It’s a picture of a rose in a vase, in which I incorporated the colors of the Syrian flag. I think it has an oriental feel.”
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There are also many other photos for sale, all with their own story. “The photo of Bram Petraeus comes from Istanbul. And Poike Stomps also has a photo for sale that she took in Ankara. She made a whole series of people crossing the street in Europe,” says Caspar. Photographer Chris de Bode has also selected a special photo to raise money for earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria. “Chris took his picture at the earthquakes in Nepal.”
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Brick by Brick
Istanbul, Turkey
Ankara, Turkey. From the Crossing Europe project
Caspar himself donated a photo from his series ‘Even Fireman’, which shows his eight-year-old daughter Lora. So there is a large and diverse range on the website. Caspar Claasen does not have a favorite photo. “All photographers who cooperate have already sold at least one photo through this promotion, I am very happy with that!”
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The photographer is not very surprised that the action is such a great success. Last year he started a similar campaign to raise money for Ukraine. “That action got completely out of hand from a positive point of view. It became incredibly busy. I had not expected that at all.” He raised almost 100,000 euros with his previous campaign. The current campaign to collect money for victims of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria has just started. So people still have plenty of time to purchase a beautiful work of art.