Over mij
My name is Moreno Molenaar.
I am a photographer, and I am from Roosendaal, the Netherlands.
This piece is about me.
About who I am as a photographer and how I found my passion.
A few years ago I started to immerse myself in photography.
As a truck driver, I often visited beautiful places.
I took a lot of pictures of these places, after which I decided to buy a camera.
As a little boy I was always busy with photos and this has never stopped.
I always liked showing people things I encountered and also being able to show them an image of how I looked at it.
Now years later I have started to delve much more into photography because I wanted to make this my profession.
My passion for photography really took off when I walked into a dilapidated and abandoned house.
It felt like time travel! Sometimes it was still so intact that it seemed as if people had got up and quickly left.
It was often mysterious and I really like photographing this.
One thing led to another and then suddenly I was in Chernobyl.
Everything you saw was old, dilapidated, and abandoned.
I was amazed and sometimes I forgot to take a picture because it was so beautiful how nature had taken over everything.
I can still remember that we were standing in the middle of a forest and the guide asked me:
"Where do you think we are now?" and I answer, of course, “In a forest?”
He told me to look through the trees and through the trees you could see grandstands.
We were standing in the middle of the dot of a football stadium where the field was completely overgrown and turned into a forest.
When I came back to the Netherlands I noticed that the newspaper was interested in my story. At the time, I shared my photos and stories with the newspaper.
I was 23 years old then.
Most people around my age will enjoy going to a warm country for vacation, but I chose to spend days wandering the deserted city of Pripyat.
Artikel over mijn reis naar Pripjat in de krant BN De Stem
Portrait Photography
When I started traveling more often, my interest also started to go photographing people.
Every person is different and every person has a story.
I like to capture the person as he really is.
I ran into this man in the French city of Annecy.
It was busy there, but this man caught my eye.
He was homeless and begging for money.
What attracted me to him was his face, it really looked like he had been alive.
You saw the character.
What also struck me were the pigeons that the man was good with.
It was wonderful to see how he had a bond with these pigeons.
Since then I have started to immerse myself in photographing people.
Whether traveling or on assignment.
It's something I enjoy doing.
Getting in touch with people or the reactions you sometimes receive
Homeless Man - Annecy, France
Monnik - Chiang Mai, Thailand
Long Neck - Thailand
Journalism
I always like photos with stories.
I had the opportunity to work at Pix4Profs as a photographer for the regional newspaper BN De Stem.
What I like most about this job is the variety.
You come across many different situations, nothing is the same.
I like this and it keeps me sharp, but I also learn a lot from it.
It's always nice to see your photos in the newspaper.
But I also like coming into contact with people about this work.
Sometimes you come to places where you would normally never come or are allowed to go and that also makes it unique.
Article about Margot Haest
Article about expensive cars
Article about Afghan Family
Article about solar eclipse