About me
I am a freelance aviation journalist and photographer, specialized in military aviation. I started aviation photography in 1977 in the Netherlands, back in the days of 32TFS operating Phantoms out of Soesterberg,Royal Netherlands Air Force NF-5’s at Gilze-Rijen and F-104’s at Volkel. From the mid 1980’s until 1992, I have been a member of the editorial team of Scramble, the Dutch aviation magazine. I contributed to this magazine on a monthly basis, not just photographs but also aircraft overviews and articles. Also before and after my stay in the editorial team, Scramble published my photographs and short articles. In 1986, I started the Gilze-Rijen Aviation Society, a local aircraft enthusiasts association in the Netherlands. Two years later, the magazine ‘Runway 28’ was born, of which I was the editor-in-chief until 1993. From 1977 until 1993, I covered many airshows and military exercises across Europe. First, before the collapse of the Berlin wall, mainly in the UK, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland and other western European countries. As of early 1990, many visits were paid to former Warsaw pact countries, such as the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary, capturing Soviet, East German etc. MiG21s, MiG23s, MiG25s, Su25s, Su27s and many other Soviet aircraft, all which were still present in great numbers at that time. I am especially fond of the photographs that I took during these trips, shortly after the collapse of the Berlin wall in December 1989. Most of these fascinating aircraft, that were hidden for our eyes for so many years, no longer fly today and I remember very well how proud Russian and East German staff at airbases in East-Germany were to show us their aircraft.
After a period of somewhat lesser activity around the change of the millennium (giving way to my academic career as a law professor, specialized in the environment and climate change), I picked up aviation photography and journalism again in the mid zero’s. This time, my trips included visits to military airfields outside Europe as well, such as South Africa, Australia, Brazil, Malaysia, Israel, USA, Bahrain, Colombia, etc. I continue to publish my photographs, on a freelance basis, both in journals and online, such as through Crusader Aviation Photography. During 2016, I lived in Australia for the entire year, during which I covered several important aviation events, such as Exercise Pitch Black 2016 at Darwin.
On my website you will find a series of galleries with some of the highlights of 40 years of military aviation.
