Hi, I am Merel, I come from the Netherlands and my work currently primarily exists of photography. However, lately I’ve been experimenting a bit with the fine line between photography and other media, (unconsciously) pushing myself to constantly re-evaluatie what my creative process means in different contexts/if it (and the work that comes from it) means anything at all. (But I mostly try to have fun, since all of that is pretty confusing most of the time). Instagram: @_uitroeptekens

Where would you like your work to take you?

A place of acceptance. (I think)

I think that I currently am most pleased with my work when it successfully expresses something that is important for me. However, I find that searching for this ‘perfect visual explanation’ for my feelings often works the other way around, so even though I’m most pleased with my work when it helps me accepting something, I’m learning not to look for this feeling.

What would you like people to take away from your work?

I don’t think I want people to take anything specific from my work, I’d rather work towards giving people a feeling of safety and authenticity. However, I am trying not to focus too much on translating this feeling into my work because, in the end, it’s all up to the viewer (and trying to control something you can’t control is, softly said, not conducive to the creative process).

Where do you draw inspiration from?

I used to be inspired by challenging myself to translate abstract concepts/questions into something visual. I feel like this doesn’t work for me that well anymore though. So, I don’t know, really. I’m currently trying to make things just for the sake of making things, not thinking too much about a meaning behind it, just observing where creating images takes me.

What piece of music would you say compliments your work the most?

I think the way I approach taking photographs come in ‘two flavors’. One ‘flavor’ is the very personal one (regarding the photos that are just snapshots of moments that feel important to me). If I would choose a piece of music that could represent that part of my photography, it would probably be something that is very close to my heart. Maybe ágætis byrjun by sigur rós or cocoon by Björk (all of them musicians from Iceland for some reason,

Ha!). The other side of my photography could probably be best described as simply my artistic preferences. I feel like Joanna newson (not a specific song) or Stiklinger by Karoline Wallace might represent those pretty well because i think you could describe the compositions of these artists as pretty chaotic but still logical in a certain way(?) 

Can you list a couple other creatives/friends/people you look to for inspiration?

I find this a really heard question if I try to answer it with regard to my photography. there are too many things I like, but consuming a lot of photography primarily trough instagram leads to often admiring photos on a very superficial level: I see so many photographic works each day that my admiration doesn’t go much further than ‘I like the colors / interesting composition‘ etc etc. (Which is a shame.) so I don’t know what really inspires my photography at the moment.