Jochen van Dijk Photography

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Jochen van Dijk Photography

Jochen van Dijk is a Dutch based photographer. For him, photography is a language throughout a creat Wildlife & Fine Art Photographer

15/12/2022

“The Stage”

12/08/2022

“Desert Patrol”, new release to celebrate .

02/04/2022

“Family”

30/11/2021

“Bulldozers” is a highlight reel of Amboseli in one image. Both are about dust, elephants and beautiful light.

22/11/2021

“Impact” - Time stands still in southern Kenya. It’s a flat, raw and elemental amphitheater and a great canvas to tell stories. There’re no tension points and it’s a place of stark contrasts. On one side you have - when lucky - your typical Hollywood-like African scenery with Mount Kilimanjaro as a scenic backdrop. On the other you have the dusty, almost apocalyptic landscape which reminds more of uninhabitable places we know from movies like “The Martian”.
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All alike… it is not your typical “Big 5 checklist” destination. It’s really all about the elephants. And the elephants here are the biggest in the world. You want to be a better photographer? Stand in front of the most amazing things you can image and put better things in front of your camera. It’s really that simple. In theory.
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In reality we waited hours for this big bull to move in front of the camera. And it was worth it. There is no point in coming all the way here and not getting above the threshold of the mundane. That is the challenge and the epicenter of any transcending photograph. All that matters is if the imagery is strong enough to elicit an emotional reaction, not be taken ever again and stacks up in the final print. That’s when you can look back with a great deal of satisfaction. I think we succeeded… it definitely has an impact on all three dimensions.

24/09/2021

“Cloverfield” - There’s no doubt that my images look better when printed. It’s whether an image holds up in print determines if it is any good. Only when being printed the size of a dinner table you can see if it’s good enough to be looked at for a long time. Whether it is strong enough to trigger an emotional reaction.
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There’s no point in going all the way up the Jurassic Park like jungle of Uganda and coming back with just a “good” image of these prehistoric primates. And I think I nailed it with this one. Even when printed this size it has ponsharp details which take hours to unravel. You can actually count the individual hairs and the blood vessels in his eyes. And even through all these details, the images breaths tranquility due to the negative space the leaves of the dense jungle provide.

11/09/2021

“Catwalk”

12/08/2021

On it is self-evident to honor the colossal presence of these animals. Sadly, due to poaching their numbers are dwindling. However, the immediate threat is probably the ongoing human wildlife conflict. The human takeover of rural areas results in increased habitat loss for these tuskers.

10/08/2021

World Lion Day 🦁

29/07/2021

Today marks . Due to poaching and habitat loss, the Siberian tiger is one of the worlds most endangered species. However, after a century of decline, overall wild tiger numbers are on the rise. Around 3,900 tigers remain in the wild, but much more work is needed to protect this species if we are to secure its future in the wild. In some areas, including much of Southeast Asia, tigers are still in crisis and still declining in number.

14/07/2021

“Relentless” - Chimpanzees may get much less hype than the endangered mountain gorillas, but tracking our closest relative through the African jungle is one of the world's most thrilling wildlife encounters. One of the best places to do so is Kibale Forest National Park in Uganda. With chances of seeing them of probably 99%, it is the prime spot to have an encounter. However, its forests are also crowded. With over 50 people send off into the woods each morning at 8 AM there’s nothing transcending there. Let’s say any of those 50 tourists encounter a chimpansee and take a picture. That’s 350 images a week, or over 18 thousand a year. It’s hackneyed and nowhere near outstanding imagery…
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When doing my research for this shoot I didn’t find any fine art images of chimpansees. Sure, there’re some clean National Geographic, journalistic images which show a close up encounter of a chimp posing. But a really intimate image of these primates seemed only preserved for the cover of BBC’s “Dynasties”… The goal was to capture that raw, human like emotion we can relate to so much. And chances are you’re not going to find it within well known locations. •
In the search for more remote locations I came at a desolated valley within Queen Elizabeth N.P. Although this is one of Uganda’s most known wildlife parks there’s just one chimp family living remotely in the Kyambura Gorge. This gorge is actually drained by River Kayambura and about 100 meters deep. The gorge is another world on its own. While the savannah above has a reasonable amount of light, the tree canopy brings a somewhat mystic feel to the place. •
When we actually heard the chimps they were on the other side of the crocodile inhabited river. While walking towards our position we made a judgement call. Using a fallen log as an overpass we crossed the river and hoped we could intercept them. And it worked out. While laying on the ground, the alpha male walked within one feet besides me. The pursuit of this image was relentless and I think we got it. It shows the humanlike charistics from these primates, like we know from Caesar’s Planet of the Apes and the emotion in his eyes is evidently raw.

06/04/2021

In a world where NFT’s are more than the “next big thing”, e-mails with images like this show why there’s an ongoing demand for native fine art. As always... photographs look better on a wall - like this New York residence - than on your iPhone.

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Amboseli

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http://www.jochenvandijk.com/

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