Erwin Olaf Interview from Katharina on Vimeo.

I don’t have a lot of Dutch heroes. The two that I have are both photographers. Erwin Olaf is one of them. VPRO television aired a marathon interview with this 51 year old photographer this evening, in which he talked about his work and various tv, film and documentary fragments that meant something to him. He came intelligent, humble, inspired and passionate. Feedback on Twitter re: the show and Erwin was extremely positive (#1 trending topic) all evening and went into overdrive during his fiery rant near the end of the show, in which he called for people to unite, be brave and strike back at the growing intolerance and violence against gay men and women in our nation’s capital in particular.

Recent work by Erwin Olaf

Enjoyed Brett Anderson’s show at the Tivoli (De Helling) in Utrecht. Of the good: He’s not as aloof as he was in the past. Voice as strong as ever. Has stopped twirling his microphone. Of the bad: He’s been writing the same songs for the past 20 years. He needs to eat a few hamburgers.

First of two times I saw the Sugarcubes that year. Björk didn’t do much for me (though I appreciated the vocals), but I loved Einar’s in your face, contrary, grating performance. Everybody else hated him. I didn’t know it at the time, but the Sugarcubes were Virgin Prunes fans, which is why they had two lead vocalists.

dEUS’ frontman Tom Barman ignoring the smoking ban at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. Seen on December 4, 2008.

View more of my dEUS photo’s on Flickr.

Spent some time on Zandvoort beach, early Friday morning. Not a lot of people there and I soon felt the pull of the city.

Excellent! Flickr slideshows are now very easily embedded using a ‘Share’ link in the top right corner. Read more about it on the Flickr blog. I like how the slideshow also plays the video’s you might have in your set.

Crunchgear reports Canon is releasing the Powershot E1, a camera for women. It comes in ‘vanilla white’, ‘aqua blue’ and ‘cotton pink’ (i.e. baby colours), and has fewer ‘unnecessary’ buttons… ’cause the little lady gets confused easily, yes?

The company created the E1 using ‘relaxation, positive feelings and friendliness as the main guidelines for the design of the camera’. It’s ‘soft’ and ’rounded’. Like a tampon.

There’s a thought. Stick it up your own hole, Canon.

Cranes in the Antwerp docklands

I nearly got my head kicked in taking pictures this weekend in Antwerp. I escaped with a few bruises, mainly to my ego. I don’t want to go into the whole sordid tale, but the moral of the story is: ask people’s permission before you take their picture in the street.

Or, you know, stick to lovely, peaceful cranes.