As photographers we document life around us. Mostly life of others as rarely we take the time and patience to photograph the mundane, the obvious, (or) our own family. Sad and stupid but true.

Earlier this year I went back to Holland, one weekend only, to celebrate my mother’s birthday (ofcourse I can’t say which one, but I give you a hint, it was a rounded one).

Every (family) occasion I have a camera with me, and I even take photos. Nevertheless, I mostly never edit or publish them. The negatives/files are put away somewhere in a safe or on a disk. 

I remember when I emigrated, I invited all our friends, I photographed them with medium-format, and though the negatives are safe somewhere, prints - except for contacts - where never made. In my mind it is important that I have them, just in case… a stupid thought though, as images are here to share.

Therefore, some images of a family gathering earlier this year. Us, just being lazy, doing nothing, yet enjoying the presence of each other.

I love this image of my father. It is so him. He was lightened by the window-light and editing was kept to a minimum: conversion to black & white and dodging a bit on the left and right in C1. Simple and exactly as I remember it.

The other images below are simply converted to B&W with some small adjustments and slightly cropped in C1.

Now, the nice thing is, that I took some ‘formal’ portraits as well. Time to ‘develop’ those. Images should not be hidden. Images are here to be shown…