Probably my interest in nature and travelling and later making pictures of that dates from childhood. Our family was living then in the Tsaar Peterstraat in Amsterdam, not far from the harbour and Artis Zoo. I dreamed of far journeys with the large seaships I saw in the harbour. Perhaps I would see in wild nature the animals I met in Artis Zoo.
When my parents, my sister and I in the weekends biked in " de Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen", I was armed with "Wat vliegt daar?" (What's flying there?) the birdsguide I got from my birthday.
Later I sometimes borrowed my father's box camera. Elderly visitors perhaps know it still: a black "biscuit-tin" in wich you could turn a paper black en white film.
When I succesfully finished my secondary school I got from my parents a Voigtländer miniaturecamera, you could even make colorslides with.
On the teachers seminary in Arnhem my interest in nature became stronger from the lessons of my biology teacher Marius Kolvoort. On free Saturdays he gave us lessons in free nature. He tought me to recocnize singing birds from the sound.
During more than 35 years I am living in the province of Friesland, making my digital photos with Nikon apparature and being a member of clubs of nature photography.
My book "frieslandelijk", Friesland, land of nature,
was published by "Friese Pers Boekerij" (ISBN 978 90330 08917).
If photography must be shared under the Arts I don't think it's interesting, but absolute sure is the aphorism above the entrance of Artis Zoo: “Natura Artis Magistra”: Nature is the Art's teacher!
(photo Lubbert Boersma and Hans Nooitgedagt)