ice factory in Breda

our kids Mees (11) & Pim (8) made an ice factory, as winter started early this year, 2 December 2010

New location!

Artstudio23, Speelhuislaan 173-B, Breda, the Netherlands. First floor, unit A101 of the Backer & Rueb (old) factory. Love our new location, and I'd like to share this white picture as we had early snow in EU all around.

Melanie Rijkers - 3rd Ward Open Call

Melanie Rijkers - 3rd Ward Open Call o yeah, I'd like to win this 3-month New York City residency! vote for me plz :)

clients sent me...

My latest pieces of art: two big sized photos on di-bond, really a beautiful set of family photos. A whole different kind of children's portraits!

Me working on the photo of the invitation to participate in the record "get as many pregnant women in one photo" to draw attention to MDG5 of the UN; Millenium Development Goal no. 5 is to Reduce the number deaths of pregnant women and newborn mothers in 3rd world countries. STOP Maternal mortality!

This was the endresult, 4 September 2010:


Try out of our very first mass Trash The Dress with 8 brides in a fountain 08-08-'08!

One of the brides participating 09-09-'09 & 10-10-'10 was Vivian from Jolanda. Can you see the photographer in this one?

Another project of mine, Red-On-Red: FineArt in Fijnaart, the Netherlands: me taking Red-On-Red photos part two. First series was done @ the redheadday in Breda in 2007.

is this a...weddingpicture??? YES

Last but not least: PURE. Proud teenmothers in Chinese:

Welcome little Bobbie

Mijn favoriete verloskundige/klant/model kreeg laatst haar 5e (!) kindje, dochter Bobbie! En dit is het fan-tas-tische geboortekaartje! :)

My favorite übercool midwife recently delivered her own 5th (!) baby, little girl Bobbie. Enjoy this little treasure, welcome in this world sweet baby! (mum Dominique was belly painted topmodel of the Simavi series with 119 big bellies photo record for the 5th Millenium Development Goal #MDG5 estafette for UN :)

pinhole

Belcrum harbour; experiment with pinhole technique...love it!
Am gonna do some more soon, love portraits like these:

Trash The Dress photobook OUT NOW

Trash The Dres...

By © Artstudio23.com

Book Preview

Open studio route Bredaphoto

This weekend last weekend of Bredaphoto festival in Breda, with me being one of the local photographers present at the Best in Breda (#BiB via Twitter). Open studio route: over 40 photographers will present themselves @ 20 locations in Breda. You can meet me @ the bookcafé Publieke Werken, St. Annastraat 12, Breda, noon-5pm this Saturday & Sunday 23/24 October 2010.

The Order Electrus

great film by Floris Kaayk - The Order Electrus - are they real or not?!? :) Enjoy!

10-10-'10 photo party!!!

10-10-10 Trash The Dress Party from Huwelijksreportage on Vimeo.

preview of the dvd made by John Links :)))

De vijf beloftes - the 5 promises of Paul Huf Award 2010

Paul Huf was a famous Dutch photographer, who died 9 years ago. He was known for his strong and powerful (and classic) advertiorial and commercial photography, had an eye for details (Grolsch) and lifted advertising & images to a higher level, in the Netherlands he was a great example to many photographers.
Jan van Buuren, his friend from way back, 78 years old, great-great-grandfather too, organises this event each year. A few of the Grote Paul's previous winners were Anton Corbijn & Rineke Dijkstra. Hope one day I'll be among those happy few :))



Vincent Mentzel presents: Suzanne Muller, Pim Ras, Corrine Kruger, Melanie Rijkers and Bianca van der Werf © Anton Poptie

Trash The Dress previous

08-08-08, 8 brides pose for me standing in a pond in Breda, the Netherlands - wanted to do a testshoot to try this concept with more than one bride.


More 'behind the scenes' photos by Leo Bestman, one of the husbands of bride Mandy who participated in my first mass
Trash The Dress event.

Now we're getting ready for the big 100 on 10-10-'10!

STOP Maternal mortality

STOP Maternal mortality by MeRy.com |

UN website: With only five years left untill the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on world leaders to attend a summit in New York on 20-22 September 2010 to accelerate progress towards the MDGs.

We, people of the city of Breda, the Netherlands, organised a big gathering 4 September 2010 to support MDG no. 5: to reduce Maternal Mortality. Over 100 pregnant women came to help public health organisation Simavi kick off the Worldmothers Estafette.

Fine art photographer MeRy (Melanie Rijkers) created the record of biggest group 'bolle buiken' (big bellies) in one photo, and the Estafette to get people to sign a petition was launched successfully.
www.MeRy.com for more of MeRy's photo & art work

Redhead day

5 September 2010: over 3500 natural redheads (gingers) invaded Breda! (the Netherlands, NOT Scotland)





Artist Bart Rouwenhorst only paints redheaded women and when he had his first exhibition of these paitings in 2005, 150 redheads showed up in Asten, the Netherlands. Now, 5 September 2010, he says over 3500 natural redheads invaded our city Breda, the Netherlands. (some reporters said it's Scotland, but nope, in NL there's also a lot of beautiful redheads!)

I already helped out a lot when he had the first gathering in 2007, also created my series Red-On-Red, on the spot, at the Roodharigendag. In 2008 we were able to create Medusa. And recently I fnished infraRED which was honorable mention at the IPA [International Photography Awards] 3 times!







Making of my often used promotion photo for the redheadday 2007 :) 11 gordeous women lay their hair on Bart Rouwehorst, covering him like a blanket.

Want to see more of my redhead portraits? Check out MeRy.nl/rood

On the move

Last few times we can watch beautiful sunsets (reflection in de window)...as we are moving to another location!

We are moving to the Backer & Rueb (old factory) building, Speelhuislaan 173 B, unitA101 in Breda, the Netherlands. Will post some awsome photos of the location soon, and wish the new renters good luck in our light and spacious studio!

Nominee @ Masters Cup

4th Photography Masters Cup:

Tantetje (Auntie) - portrait of the house of Tantetje - cat. Still Life - also available as photobook Tantetje's Traces Of Silence
Beds, abandoned waterpark, Kos, Greece - cat. Still Life

3rd Photography Masters Cup:

Womountains, pregnant lady - cat. Nude
Doorbells, Black Madonna, the Hague - building by architect Carlos Weeber - cat. Abstract
Parking, Black Madonna, the Hague - building by architect Carlos Weeber - cat. Architecture

1st Photography Masters Cup:

Clock, Musee Orsay, Paris - France - cat. Architecture
Mirror, small street in Barcelona, Spain - cat. Architecture

My nominated photos @ the International Color Awards so far