1st prize Px3

STOP Maternal mortality - FIRST PRIZE IN THE PX3 ALTERED IMAGES COMPETITION.

PARIS, FRANCE - PRIX DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE PARIS (PX3) ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF ALTERED IMAGES COMPETITION.

Melanie Rijkers of Netherlands was Awarded: First Prize in category Altered Images for the entry entitled, "STOP Maternal mortality" The jury selected Altered Images’s winners from thousands of photography entries from over 85 countries.

Px3 is juried by top international decision-makers in the photography industry: Carol Johnson, Curator of Photography of Library of Congress, Washington D.C.; Gilles Raynaldy, Director of Purpose, Paris; Viviene Esders, Expert près la Cour d'Appel de Paris; Mark Heflin, Director of American Illustration + American Photography, New York; Sara Rumens, Lifestyle Photo Editor of Grazia Magazine, London; Françoise Paviot, Director of Galerie Françoise Paviot, Paris; Chrisitine Ollier, Art Director of Filles du Calvaire, Paris; Natalie Johnson, Features Editor of Digital Photographer Magazine, London; Natalie Belayche, Director of Visual Delight, Paris; Kenan Aktulun, VP/Creative Director of Digitas, New York; Chiara Mariani, Photo Editor of Corriere della Sera Magazine, Italy; Arnaud Adida, Director of Acte 2 Gallery/Agency, Paris; Jeannette Mariani, Director of 13 Sévigné Gallery, Paris; Bernard Utudjian, Director of Galerie Polaris, Paris; Agnès Voltz, Director of Chambre Avec Vues, Paris; and Alice Gabriner, World Picture Editor of Time Magazine, New York.

ABOUT Px3:
The "Prix de la Photographie Paris" (Px3) strives to promote the appreciation of photography, to discover emerging talent, and introduce photographers from around the world to the artistic community of Paris. Winning photographs from this competition are exhibited in a high-profile gallery in Paris and published in the high-quality, full-color Px3 Annual Book.

Visit Px3.fr
Contact Melanie Rijkers: photostudio's website
Idea and concept for Simavi and UN's 5th Millenium Development Goal MeRy.nl/wereldsdelen

PURE. Proud teenage mothers goes America?

PURE. by Melanie Rijkers - www.MeRy.com | Blurb

PURE. now available in English, photo essay about Proud young mothers 16-22 years of age, posing naked, pregnant or with child or both, 100% Photoshop FREE!

10 April 2012: WASHINGTON — The number of new teenage mothers in the United States is at its lowest level in nearly 70 years but remains the highest of any major developed country, according to official figures released Tuesday.
---> time to do a PURE book with American teenage mothers!?

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 :)

Looking for big bellies

4 September 2010 I am gonna be the photographer of the first biggest group photo of pregnant bellies ever. Simavi & the 5th Milleniumgoal ask for our attention and we want people to sign the petition against mother's & baby's deaths.
The estafette will urge people to sign the petition and will tour tru NL for 4 weeks, starting in my hometown Breda. 52% of the people in the Netherlands already lives in a Millenium Town :) We need your help to get the worldleader's attention and reduce the deaths of pregnant women and newborn babies worldwide. You can also volunteer to join the groupphoto!

Dying for treatment by photographer Marco Vernaschi breaks my heart... *Warning* this link contains shocking images

Mothersnight

May 8 it's the "Mothersnight" in the Netherlands (May 9 is our national Mothersday).

11 pregnant ladies posed for me last week, Simavi can use these lovely images of their pregnant bellies for their campaign against the high rates of mothers dying when pregnant or giving birth worldwide. It's Milleniumgoal no. 5, and it's the goal with the worst results so far.
In Breda, my hometown, there will be an event at the old cityhall, and worldwide the UN hopes to draw attention to this problem too. For some reason women aren't considered equal to men, but as the giver of life wo hould be charished and loved, not put down and thrown away when (men) consider them useless, like when they only deliver babygirls and not -boys.
It's irritating the hell out of me. I am a mother myself and can't understand the way some (men) are thinking. And for me it's hard to see e.g. the photos of Marco Vernaschi Dying for Treatment. When I look at them, my heart breaks and I want to leave NL and rush there and go help myself.
Two women waiting to give birth in the pre-birth room. The whole hospital is in desperate hygiene conditions and suffers from lack of facilities. In same cases, the lack of goodwill of the Guinean Government is the cause of such conditions. There are 700 hospital beds and a new surgery room ready to be sent to Guinea Bissau, but as the Guinean Government insisted to charge custom taxes, the material will be sent somewhere else.
We must stop this madness. The children are the world!
Support Simavi with their struggle. Or check www.Moedernacht.nl (Dutch) for more information.

2 Day

baby Day on big size canvas print by: Hans van Nunen

Well, loads of babies are born so it seems. Am hoping for a new babygirl in the family today too, as it is my mother's (March 9, 1947 - May 26, 1991) birthday today and I'd just love it if my cousin Suzanne would have her babygirl on my mother's birthday :)
Also I'd like to share the above canvas print of baby Day and the birth anouncement card of Lenka, the babygirl of my sister: It's very fashionable in Holland to create cards like these, being like the cover of a magazine. Inside there's more photos and fun stuff like where the name Lenka comes from. It's very different from back in the days, when my sister was born and I had to pose myself ;) I'll look the card up and scan it too, it's hilarious, like this pose, taken by Huub van Happen -the only professional photographer in Bakel in 1975- and my mom and sis were still at the hospital so my parents were far ahead of their time: LOL: photographers don't want to be at the other side of the camera haha :) We like to hide behind it and shoot other people's pictures yeah, so true. Anwyay, am happy people allow me to do so and give me full trust when taking their photo. Sometimes it feels like being in a intimate relationship with that person, even if the shoot only lasts a (few)moment(s).
Well, more coming soon, am too busy with my photobook about teenage moms atm, the publisher calls me like every day and I need to look at proofs etc. Tomorrow a day at the Vitalis College to do a series on the project Check-In, where a big bus with my images on the outsides tours from school to school to let students have a look & listen to stories elderly people tell.

Lieve Lenka

Lieve Lenka, welcome in this world :) we love you already! xxx

My sister had her 2nd baby last night and...it's a girl! (First in the family :) So we are very proud and happy and she's just so very lovely :))) Lenka Catharina Sophia, sister of Bickel, was born 23 January, 23.03, 2009, father Alex Stok and mother Anouk Rijkers.

With a lot of work to do she completely got my attention last night and today, so I was in no shape of working or producing any art :p
Well folks, will have a try tomorrow, for today I was auntie Mel :)

PUUR. in de Melkweg

PUUR. (PURE.) in de Melkweg Gallery Amsterdam 1 April - 3 May 2009

The project PURE. Proud young mothers is getting there. After 3 years of hard work I now have collected 75 portraits of naked young mothers, who posed pregnant and/or with child(ren). Being a teenmom life is hard, and their choice (they chose LIFE) isn't always respected.
In Holland teenage pregnancies are the last taboo, as all seems to be possible in NL, having a baby at a younger age (< 25) is almost a sin. But our mothers were 21, so what's so wrong with being a young mother nowadays?? By publishing the photos in a beautiful book called PUUR. Trotse Tienermoeders I hope people will change their minds and, like me, see that motherhood is a beautiful thing, no matter what age the mom is.
Check it Out @ d'JongeHond Miranda Baas text, Paperback, 16 x 24 cm, 120 pages, circa 100 photos ISBN 978-90-89101-03-7, € 19,95

Geboortekaartjes "fraude"

In Holland we always send 'birthcards' when a baby is born, announcing the name, weight and often is the first babyphoto (or one of the pregnant belly) also used in the card. Being reportage photographers my husband and I go to people's home to take photos of their newborn baby, then retouch it back at the studio and design a photocard with the best one, to be printed out as real (chemical) photos. (you can also use the digital file to have it printed on paper) Our baby-born cards: MeRy.nl/baby.htm

Now my sister is having her 2nd baby and she again asked me to do the photography of the baby when it's born. She showed me some examples of this website and all of a sudden I was surprised: now I know why we once had a client who thought of their baby's photos as not the best...he expected the baby's photo to be like the commercial photos of a 3 to 6 months old baby, the ones you always see in the magazines, eyes wide open, smiling, first tooth present and with lovely curly hair.

Lovely curly hair??? Smiling?? Newborn babies are the ugliest models there are, they are so beautiful yet horrible to take a glossy photo of. Altho a good photographer will be able to :-) But these websites & magazines show babies laying on their stomage, lifting up the head etc. Believe me: this is impossible! True: it's lovely photography, BUT NOT POSSIBLE with a newborn baby, they are too young to smile or lift up their head when laying on their stomage. These websites show such lovely cards, really commercial, fab and glossy, but reality...is SO very different!

MeRy.nl/baby.htm for more baby & pregnancy photography