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About Tess

Tess is an independent creative photographer, previously found running around the music industry before turning her focus on documentary photography. The first time she held a camera, she fell in love, but she’s also a writer, painter and wanderlust by heart.

Through her work, Tess desires to photograph the small, delicate things that often go unnoticed yet hold a world of meaning. Highlights don't interest her much. She’s after the images that tell the stories she witnesses; the stories that are made by but also inspired by humans, their surroundings and their dreams.

Tess aims to work with people who share her passion for the creative arts and has been fortunate enough to have worked with numerous bands, people and organisations who match that zeal and eagerness. She joined the photography team of Friesland-based Welcome to the Village (2019) and renowned Utrecht-based Le Guess Who? festivals. In 2019, she started working with York-based band the Howl and the Hum and became their tour manager early 2020. That same year she became in-house photographer at Paradiso, Amsterdam. Late 2022, she began working with Flevo Campus and Food Hub, two organisations active in the food research industry, thus expanding her activities to the food world. In 2023, she left the majority of the music industry behind her, desiring to focus more on the field of photography she loves the most: documentary photography. Around the same time, she started dipping her toes into sports (field hockey) photography.

Tess is based in Utrecht but works throughout the country and is available worldwide.

Previous and/or current freelance work
S.V. Kampong hockey club
Le Guess Who? (2019 - 2026)
Food Hub (2022 - 2026)
Flevo Campus (2022 - 2024)
Popronde (2019 - 2024)
Koffie Leute (2022 - 2024)
Paradiso in-house photographer (2020 - 2024)
Tribe Management (2018 - 2024)
Amsterdam Fringe Festival (2021 - 2022)
Welcome to the Village (2019 - 2023)
Explore The North (2019 - 2022)
Hit the North + ESNS (2021)
NH Pop (2020)
TivoliVredenburg / by night (2019)
Royal Park (2019)
Here Comes the Summer (social media, 2019)
Into the Great Wide Open (2018 - 2020)
Grasnapolsky (social media, 2019)
Echo van Tivoli (2019)
Museumn8 (2019)
Daily Paradise (Lowlands, 2018)
Haarlemse Cultuurnacht (2018)
Patronaat Business Club (2018)

Education
2023 - 2024 The Documentary Commitment, Magnum Learn
2020 Documentary workshop, Fotoacademie.
2018 - 2019 Street Photography, Magnum Learn. 
2016 - 2017 Photojournalism, New York Institute of Photography.
2015 - 2017 Journalism and New Media, NTI (the Netherlands Language Institute).
2010 - 2014 Criminology, Bachelor, Leiden University.

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