Just some words about me, Eric Pijnaken

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On my way to become an actor in taking pictures, and not a spectator only, I have been – and still – impressed by the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Willy Ronis, André Kertész and others which succeeded to capture these special moments that allow that the life in it continues to shine. They managed that by immerging into their subjects, and so they display not only a picture of their time and cironstances, but something that depasses them. Some time ago I joined a workshop with Jane Evelyn Atwood, that showed me the way in which I like to go. Jane has taken marvelous images of prostitutes, prisoners, blind, a man dying from aids. She invests herself  sometimes a year in a one and only subject, not too much bothering at the technical aspects of taking photos, but just entering into a real engagement. That is why her images are so strong, and will not become outmoded.
As a young boy, taking photos seduced me. With a primitive Agfa Clack I took pictures of cows and meadows, in the direct neighbourhoud where I lived, Rotterdam, Holland, which is my place of birth in wartime 1942.
Later I bought a second hand Honeywell filmcamera, with which I made a film starring my sister near the statue of Ossip Zadkine in Rotterdam, figuring a man without heart, symbolising the bombing of the city that destroyed its center. In my early twenties I earned a second price in a national photo contest, with photos of the big architectural project of creating the underground railway of Rotterdam.
However it appeared that photography and film were not my direct destiny, since I became editor in arts (literature and modern art of painting) for several magazines. Later I switched to a big daily newspaper as journalist writing on social and economic affairs and as commentator. Photography got on the background, but my interest in it revived at my retreat. So I am passionate about all I meet, especially people and nature. Living isolated in the Cevennes mountains of the Ardèche in the south of France, photographer's life is not always easy, so now and then I travel to meet the life of the city, or special environments in which I try to act to my best.
Of the many ten thousands of photos in my archives you find some examples divided into several chapters. I do not know your feelings, but I hope you ENJOY !