When I turned fifteen, I got a huge amount of money from my grandparents (a hundred guilders, that´s about forty dollars). I never had a big talent for saving, so with my new-earned money I went to the mall and bought a semi-professional camera, very impulsive. And imagine, I hadn't made one picture before, I didn´t even know if I would like photography! But I had this feeling… just buy the camera, I think you´ll like it Michelle. My mother was furious that I´d spent the money all at once, but I would never regret my choice. I started photographing everything I saw, from garden to kitchen to coffee pot to all my friends and the wrinkles of my mother, who stayed concerned about my impulsive behavior. After I finished high school there was no doubt what I was going to do: I went to study Medicine at the University. Being raised in the ghettos of Nijmegen (my hometown) by my mother, and my father, a doctor who lived in a very good neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Nijmegen, I was a half-ghetto, half-wasp who wasn´t allowed to go to the Art Academy. I followed the advice of my father and family and started to study Medicine. I didn´t feel happy at all. I joined a student photography club, I photographed every day and ate, dreamed and slept with my camera but I wasn´t taught about photography. And I didn´t enjoy being fully auto-didactic. I looked at a lot of magazines, went to expositions, bought books of photographers who inspired me, but nobody gave me feedback. So again very impulsively, I auditioned for a part-time Art Academy and I was admitted! Again, my parents weren’t happy. From Monday to Friday I went to college and every Saturday I went to the Art Academy. It was an improvement, but it wasn´t enough.

back

next page