Femke den Hollander (°1979, Bruges, Belgium) studied social and cultural work at the VIVES-university after spending 12 months in Zimbabwe as a high school student. As a social worker she worked 17 years with vulnerable young people, their stories and lives full of sadness, strenght and hope.
She feels strongly about documentary work, both photography and film. So she did. Her first camera cam
e as a second hand Nikon D90, and a 50mm manual objective. Six years later she graduated in photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bruges. She participated in several exhibitions and collaborations. Besides that she works for different social and cultural projects in Bruges, as a photographer, social investigator and, in some cases, instigator. She's looking for unknown environments, trying to document the lives of people she does not know. Spending time with them teaches her what might remain unseen, unknown and unspoken when no one captures it. A never ending story.
She's one of the founders of the N.O.D.S.Collective, a photography-based collective, founded in 2018.
Since the lockdowns in 2020, she started focussing on nature scenes near her house and garden in the evening and the night. Resulting in a new series, 'Goodnight' and a self-published photo book which can be viewed on the Belgian Platform for Photo Books: belphotobooks.org/book/goodnight/
