Hope to see you at the next FOTODOK Book Talks in Tivoli Vredenburg Utrecht. The FOTODOK Book Talks is the platform for the stories behind photo books. In this live talk show, together with Giya Makondo-Wills, I interview visual storytellers, photographers, designers and publishers.

In this edition, Viviane Sassen with her retrospective work Phosphor. Through vividly coloured portraits, landscapes, still lifes and abstract compositions, Sassen explores a range of themes and topics such as identity, gender, body, race, fashion and environment. Hristina Tasheva with Far Away From Home. Born and raised in communist Bulgaria, Hristina has lived in the Netherlands for 21 years. Yet she still struggles with finding her place in society: do locals see me as a communist? Sandra Minten with her book 90 eggs and one omelette about Leen, a homeless, to drugs resident of a small community, the City Nomads. And Kristof Titeca with his research project on Nasser Road in Uganda, a mythical place known for its print trade and as a hotbed for fraud. In Nassar Road, Titeca draws attention to one of its main products: posters and calendars depicting politicians and well-known personalities as superheroes.

If you cannot attend the live talkshow in Utrecht, discounted tickets are also available for a live stream of this event.

The next edition of the FOTODOK Book Talks, which I curate and co-host together with Giya Makondo-Wills, will take place on 6 April 2023 from 8 - 9:30 pm at TivoliVredenburg Utrecht. Vanessa Winship will talk about Snow (Dead Beat Club, 2022), Karine Versluis about her new book Debaltsevo, Where Are You? (The Eriskay Connection, 2023) and Mashid Mohadjerin about Freedom is Not Free (Royal Academy Fine Arts, Antwerp, 2021). You can order single tickets via this link. Students can get a discount by using the code FOTOSTUDENT23 at checkout. Also group discounts are possible. Please contact FOTODOK for that.

On Friday 12 November, between 6 and 7:30 pm, I present the live talk show FOTODOK Book Club - Paris Photo Edition, just a few steps away from Grand Palais. With amazing guests, including two nominees for the Paris Photo Aperture PhotoBook Award: Rahim Fortune (I can’t stand to see you cry) and Bieke Depoorter (Agata). I also talk to Rafal Milach about his brand new book Strajk and the vibrant protest movement in Poland. And young talent Michelle Piergoelam who’s work The Untangled Tales is exhibited at the place where this edition of the FOTODOK Book Club takes place: Atelier Néerlandais, 121 Rue de Lille, 75007 Paris.⁠
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Afterwards books will be sold and signed, including my own brand new The Naval Base, the latest publication within The Europeans 2020 - 2030.⁠
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If you want to attend, order your ticket ASAP for €14.30 via www.fotodok.org. Due to corona measures the number of seats for this event is limited. For a reduced rate you can also watch the talk show live from your couch at home.⁠

Here we go again! The fifth season of the FOTODOK Book Club kicks off with The Power Edition and contains conversations with an amazing trio of photobook makers. Spanish Laia Abril comes to talk about her book On Abortion, recently winner of the prestigious Paris Photo/Aperture Foundation’s Photobook of the Year Award. I’ll talk to Guy Martin about The Parallel State, a story about power, authoritarianism, and the theatrics of politics. And Jonas Bendiksen comes to tell more about his latest book The Last Testament, for which he traveled all over the world to meet and photograph 7 men that believe they are the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

A single ticket for a Book Club costs €11.00 (students €5.50) and can be purchased via the website of TivoliVredenburg. For €32.50 you become a member for a year, meaning you are guaranteed a seat in all four episodes and you receive 10% discount on the books on the table and of course, you support the FOTODOK Book Club. More information via FOTODOK.

It was somewhat foreseeable, but this last edition of the fourth season of the FOTODOK Book Club sold out in a few days. If you would like to be considered for the waiting list, please contact FOTDOK (not me). The photographers participating in this 16th edition are Dana Lixenberg with her new publication Tupac Biggie, Bryan Schutmaat with Good Goddamn and Martin Parr with Beach Therapy.

De FOTODOK Book Club is a live talk show in which interviews with makers of photo books are interluded with extraordinary trivia and tips for lovers and collectors. Since its inception in a dark basement four years ago, FOTODOK’s Book Club has relocated several times and grown into crowded evenings for a broad audience in Tivoli Vredenburg.

FOTODOK Book Club 16th Edition
Thursday December 6, 2018 from 8 until 9:30 pm
Tivoli Vredenburg Utrecht

The 15th edition of the FOTODOK Book Club will feature amazing and in some cases controversial books and makers like The Sweating Subject by Jan Banning, Shadows of the State by Lewis Bush and Robert F. Kennedy Funeral Train - The People’s View by Rein Jelle Terpstra. Laura Cnossen, who told about her graduation dummy Love Klink in an earlier edition, explains why her dummy recently has been published by the English publisher Here Press.

De FOTODOK Book Club is a live talk show in which interviews with makers of photo books are interluded with extraordinary trivia and tips for lovers and collectors. Since its inception in a dark basement four years ago, FOTODOK’s Book Club has relocated several times and grown into crowded evenings for a broad audience in Tivoli Vredenburg.

FOTODOK Book Club 15th Edition
Thursday October 4, 2018 from 8 until 9:30 pm
Tivoli Vredenburg Utrecht

During Unseen Amsterdam there will be a Special Edition of the FOTODOK Book Club in the intimate ‘Annex - Leidinghuis’ for a limited number of people. This edition will take place on Saturday 22 September 2018 from 13:45 - 15:00. The guests will be announced one evening in advance via Instagram accounts of FOTODOK, Unseen Amsterdam and myself. Seats are available on first come first served basis. 

On Thursday October 4th and December 6th, the next editions of the FOTODOK Book Club will take place in Tivoli Vredenburg. If you want to know more about books and guests to expect or to buy a ticket, please click on the link below. Confirmed guests on October 4th are Jan Banning and Lewis Bush. More soon.

Very much looking forward to the 14th edition of the FOTODOK Book Club, starting at 8 pm on April 5, 2018 in Tivoli Vredenburg Utrecht. It promises to be an exciting evening with fabulous books made by Andrew Phelps & Paul Kranzler (The Drake Equation), Christian van der Kooij (Anastasiia) and Robin de Puy (Randy). Tivoli Vredenburg is located next to Utrecht Central Station. Buy your ticket via the link below.

On Tuesday 13 February 2018 Pakhuis De Zwijger in Amsterdam organizes the live talk show Fotokroniek, focusing on contemporary documentary photography and storytelling through photo books. Guest are Donald Weber, Eddo Hartmann and Rob Hornstra.