Summer is here

© Wendy Marijnissen

Part of my day today

© Wendy Marijnissen

On the way to Dover

© Wendy Marijnissen

© Wendy Marijnissen

Back to school

© Wendy Marijnissen

© Wendy Marijnissen

Rosie and Moussa

© Wendy Marijnissen

Yesterday I had the immense privilege to go along and visit the help prison of Leuven together with the actors and musicians of ‘t Arsenaal. They were performing the play ‘Rosie and Moussa’ to inmates and their families during visitation hours there.

© Wendy Marijnissen

© Wendy Marijnissen

© Wendy Marijnissen

The play is about a little girl, who thinks her father is in a faraway land, but actually is in prison. After months of no communication and her mother hiding the truth from her, she receives a call from him and together with her best friend Moussa she decides to visit him in jail.

You get a different side of a prison story, through the eyes of a child, whose father is incarcerated.

The performance for the actual inmates with their loved ones really got me and touched me in different ways. A little girl kept turning around to her mother and father when she recognized herself in the story. A father in the front row kept lowering his head out of shame when the story became to familiar for him…

© Wendy Marijnissen

One year ago today

One year ago today, one day after the capture and resulting death of Osama Bin Laden, I was in Lahore. Together with some of my dear friends there, we visited the old walled city, which became a tradition for us whenever I was in town.

© Wendy Marijnissen

© Wendy Marijnissen

© Wendy Marijnissen

It being the biggest news ever, and me being in Pakistan of all places, I was obsessed in going out and making some pictures connected to Osama.  Besides finding a newspaper wallah that was making his round with fake pictures of a killed Osama, life in the old city went on as usual.  No tension in the air, children playing, animals lazing about, nothing marking what happened the day before…

After a while, my friend Shah Zaman spotted this old baba watching the news on tv and we were invited to come in his little shack in which he collected parking money.

© Wendy Marijnissen

He became so fired up when we talked to him about Osama and whether or not government officials and the army knew if the most wanted criminal/fugitive in the world was staying in their country… With the devastating floods not even a year behind them, destroying most of the crops, houses and displacing over 20 million people… many people felt angry and betrayed by their government.

Here is how Baba spoke about it:

Eery feeling

© Wendy Marijnissen

I just read about the bomb attack on the Lahore train station, killing 2 and injuring 27…

I hope all my Lahore friends are safe and sound. It’s always gives me such an eery feeling to know the place, know people there and even having been in the station that now has been attacked whilst traveling in Pakistan by train with friends.

 

Quote

‘The trouble is once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And once you have seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There is no innocence. Either way, you are accountable.’ Arundhati

Record store day

© Wendy Marijnissen

Yesterday was Record Store Day. A day to celebrate the independent record stores.

I’ve used to work in one for years and I still have the fondest memories of working there. It’s so great to be surrounded by music all day long.

© Wendy Marijnissen

© Wendy Marijnissen

Record Store day is the one day of the year that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music. Special vinyl and CD releases are released exclusively for the day and hundreds of artists around the world make special appearances and performances.

I went to check out the record store Tune Up Records here in Antwerp, in the heart of the city center above the magazine store I visit every weekend. I saw the performance of Mauro Pawlowski, an incredible talented Belgian musician who besides playing in bands like dEUS, also does solo work and dozens of side projects in both music and theatre.  Check it and have a great sunday!

© Wendy Marijnissen

Backstage

© Wendy Marijnissen

© Wendy Marijnissen

Last weekend I’ve had a very productive few days working on my new project.

I’m not going to give away too much about it yet since it’s still very much a work in progress. It does however bring me into many different situations and the conversations I’m having are so interesting and they are giving me much to think about. Even when I’m not photographing a lot, a big part of the project is the research and the talks with people on the subject.

It also confirms that I’m working on the right project at the moment and that what I’m doing is very necessary and to the point today. Misconceptions are such a big part of the problems in our societies and I hope in the future that my new work will help do something about it.