for many years i have been working with groups to realize large scale project. the magic restaurant project in oulu, finland in 1994 was one of the first. the tulip project is now. there are more ideas for large scale projects, like the fisherman for istanbul or the plans for the giant table and chairs in berlin. all those projects could start tomorrow, but having only two hands and like everyone else only 24 hours a day, i prefer to concentrate now on the tulips.
the tulips are ok. the projects grows without effort and more and more kids get a chance to get involved. now at the ahoy centre in the south of rotterdam, hundreds of kids are drawing and painting very colourful and inspiring tulips. more then 30 schools are allready involved in the project and more will certainly do so the coming months.
at the same time however it is great to work on other things, other concepts and most of all to work in a different way. working with large groups is demanding and costs a lot of energy. projects like the tulips are fun to do. it is fun to create new ways to do things and to get kids involved (as much as possible) in a large scale art project. it is inspiring to see how much you can do without resources (the fisherman in rotterdam was realized without resources: there was no budget).
still however it is essential to relax, to do other things and use my brains in different ways to prevent rust and routine-like operations. photography offers those possibilities. i make pictures - i decide when and what i make pictures of. the rotterdam - istanbul project, i.e. making pictures along the waterway between those two harbour cities is challenging. there is much to see, there is much to learn and most of all there is much happening between this source of life straight through europe: most off all there is much to photograph.