what drives rene?
what makes rene tick?
what is this even about?
you may recognize him simply from his avatar that has been in place since long before facebook, twitter, and instagram were a thing. it actually first popped up in deviantart back in 2005 after a family trip to lisbon. while taking a breather near torre de belem he noticed the reflection in his police sunglasses and decided to take a picture of it. the photo turned out well, with the focus on the reflection and the space outside of the specs in dof. instead of using a selfie as profile picture it has been this shot that has been used everywhere since.
photography has been a hobby since early childhood. during one of his first school field trips rene got approval from his dad to bring his old kodak film camera with him. rene shot a 24-exposure film and was hooked ever since. however, as it goes in life, the interest waxed and waned and only after digital photography became a reality and affordable at the end of the 1990s it has been a steady source of interest. living, at the time, in the most photogenic city in the netherlands, rotterdam, it made sense to document the almost daily changes to the urban landscape of this always (re-)building city.
in yet another stroke of luck (or genius) he became a consultant for a real estate software company and all of a sudden his palette expanded beyond what was within a fuel tank's driving range and he was able to combine his on-site client engagements with frolicking around in cities like london, paris, munich, prague, budapest, warsaw, and of course the sub-tropical island of guernsey. somewhere during 2006 something happened that would upend and uproot his entire life: he met his then future wife. at the end of 2007 rene emigrated to the united states to settle near atlanta and he was able to transfer his job within the company, so now he was traveling all over the east coast of the us.
after 9 years in hot and humid georgia rene and his family thought it was time to move to a climate with four seasons and decided to grow roots near portland, oregon. again, he was able to transfer within the company so starting mid-2016 he has been traveling all over the west coast, including alaska and hawaii! where this all leads, nobody really knows, but the important thing to remember is that photography is still just a hobby, that his photography is not for sale (yet), and that he is not for hire. this may change in the future, but rene still feels like he has a lot to learn about photography before he can say he is an artist. if that even happens ...
naturally, there is a twist to this story, because photography is not the only iron in the fire! rene is also a novelist/poet. yes, he is. no, seriously!
he has completed one novel and one poetry book and he has started a second novel, and they are all part of a series of sorts. nothing has been published, yet. finding a publisher is not the easiest task, especially not while working full-time and being a family man.
this is the reason why there is a literature section in the blog!
and that is all he wrote ...