Here's a set of my freediving photography. Combining passions doesn't always work -my dad used to say "I like licorice and i like mayonaise, but not necessarily together"- but in this case it is love squared.
The main man responsible for this explosion of images is Rob King, who was kind enough (or mad enough, after he'd seen how i treat my gopro) to lend me his housing and camera. The beginning of a love squared affair.
It has been a while since i did my last world record, mostly due to the extensive press tour afterwards, but also because of a lack of challenges: it appeared no one was able to eat an apple or take superman pants deeper. In these demanding categories, human kind had reached the edge of what was possible at this time.
So it was once again up to me to set myself a new challenge. My friend William Trubridge had done a fun little dip with a project he called 'the hectometer'
but i figured: "Why stop at meters? Why not feet? And then, to make things really interesting, why not flip the whole script and go feet first?"
As usual, they said it could not be done. But i say it can be Daan! (though my publicist insists i really shouldn't say that) So i went for it: the Hecto-Feet-First. I trained and trained until i had athlete's feet (once again, for some reason, my publicist objects to this term) and felt as ready as could be for this monumental task -never before had man been in this position, so you're never sure if you're actually ready. But late february 2012, on a little island in the Bahamas, new territory of human potential was about to be uncovered:
It was a resounding success, not only of athleticism, but of grace and camera-angles.
As always with these awe-inspiring feats of feet, i hope to entice the world to rethink boundaries, to push limits, to go beyond the comfort of the usual. What else can we do feet first? What else can we do in reverse?
Flip the script, my friends, and you'll get, ehm, tpircs, written upside down.
Last month i was involved as a photographer in the Kingston Sound Communities project, a series of introductions to music for various communities within Kingston. The groups were as varied as the borough itself: there were kids, elderly, people with additional needs, women only, mixed groups -a celebration of diversity. The project was set up by Kim Perkins, a fantastic community musician, who led the groups along with Roshi Nasehi, Kirsty Williams and Phil Mullen, in cooperation with Kingston Adult Education.
It was a great joy to do -from being on the floor with the kids to laughing with the people with additional needs to seeing the adult choirs slowly getting comfortable singing together. It culminated in a wonderful concert
and an exhibition, opened by the Deputy Mayor and all (fancy fancy), currently going on at Kingston Market place till april 10th
where Thomas, one of the volunteers, reinforced that old truism that people will always look for themselves first in pictures
For those who can't drop by, but still wanna check it out, some of the work is here
