I think there is not much fundamental difference between various creative processes. Whether I am painting, cooking, or writing, I feel creativity can move through every layer of existence. I experience art and creativity as universal languages, accessible to anyone, at any moment, in countless forms.

Armando, one of the most influential Dutch artists since the Second World War and a profound source of personal inspiration, embodied this idea fully. He was a journalist, poet, sculptor, painter, actor, boxer, and violin player. He regarded both his life and his oeuvre as a Gesamtkunstwerk, a “total work of art,” a synthesis in which multiple disciplines merge into a single, coherent whole.

Viewed from this perspective, my work as a cameraman has proven to be inseparable from my artistic development. This profession allowed me to encounter people from all walks of life. From presidents to beggars, the war in Afghanistan, the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe and the Middle East, and many more. I had the chance to gain many intellectual riches I could later translate into painting, writing, and filmmaking. 

Therefore, my practice as a cameraman is not separate from my art; it is essential to it. It grants me access to realities in their raw state, before they are reshaped by interpretation or ideological framing.

In their purest form, these experiences become the raw material for my artistic investigations.