NGO'S & FOUNDATIONS

NGO's and foundations like UNICEF, United Nations, UNHCR, the AIDS Fonds, Rutgers WPF, KLM Air Cares, Sophia Children’s Hospital, Save the Children, Clean Clothes Campaign and UTZ Certified have sent me on assignment some 45 times to photograph their projects. Often as part of a team, I have travelled around the world to make portraits and reportages or a combination of both.

Together we have focused on subjects like microcredit, climate change, working conditions, entrepreneurs, education, women’s rights, HIV/AIDS, landmine victims, children’s rights, water shortages, sex workers, and the effects of war. Some of these series were published in leading global media.  

 

 

Football players | Somaliland | Save the Children

Aurelio | Colombia | Unicef

Syrian girls | Jordan | Unicef

Emelda and her baby Perfect | Zambia | Unicef

Emelda and her baby Perfect | Zambia | Unicef

Nancy & Catherine | Kenya | SRHR Alliance

Cecilia and her daughter Kalumba | Zambia | Unicef

All Kind of reportages images.

 

FILM

Although I am primarily a photographer, I often travel with film teams and therefore I have learned to assist on the spot in the role of interviewer, camerawoman or director. In addition to my assignments, I also create my own multimedia projects together with filmmaker (and my husband) Philip Brink, like ‘Children of the Labyrinth’ and ‘The Island of All Together.’

 
 

UNICEF (2 minutes, 2019)

Through news reports we learn about what is going on in the world, but what do we know about one another? With that in mind I asked Facebook-friends if they perhaps had a personal question for the Syrians who have been forced to live in Jordan for years now. After filming the answers along with a Syrian family we put the answers back on the timeline of the questioners, and I connected them on Facebook as friends. This is a summary of the answers.

Idea and director: Marieke. Camera: DJ van den Aardweg. Editor: Philip Brink.

RUTGERS WPF (0.41 minutes, 2013)

A short film impression about the new born babies and their mothers in Ntcheu hospital in Malawi. Click here to watch the photo series.

Idea | Camera | Edit: Marieke.


 

OUTSIDE SYRIA (1,47 minutes, 2015)

About 8 million Syrians have fled their homes since the start of the conflict in Syria. 1.2 Million of them ended up in Lebanon, living in (illegal) tent camps of in small apartments in Beirut. We decided to create a ‘virtual bridge’ between the Syrians and the Dutch people by letting them ask questions via Facebook. We filmed the answers and put them back on the timeline of the questioners. The entire project can be seen here.

Idea | Production | Camera | Photography | Edit: Marieke and Philip.

 

THE ISLAND OF ALL TOGETHER (23 minutes, 2016)

In the Island of All Together, European tourists and Syrian people forced to flee are invited to have a dialogue about life on benches on the Greek island Lesvos. The surprising conversations are an ode to humanity and show what happens when we take time to sit down ands talk with each other instead of about each other. This is the trailer, watch the film here.

Idea | Production | Filming | Photography | Edit: Marieke and Philip.

 

CHILDREN OF THE LABYRINTH (9 short films of 4-7 mins each, 2023)

This project presents the impressive letters that refugee parents - all stranded in Greece -  have written to their children. The letters offer a deep human insight into what it really feels like for a parent to have to expose your little one to a life-threatening European labyrinth of high walls, violent pushbacks, human traffickers and tent camps, without wanting to. This is the trailer, you can watch the project here (with password COTL)

Idea | Production|Filming | Editing | Photography: Marieke, Philip and others.