I always say that my career got skyrocketed after shooting Wibi Soerjadi.
Now for people not knowing Wibi… well it’s a bit hard to explain but let’s put it this way he is a master pianist and was incredibly young when he was discovered, he’s about my age and I remember seeing him in a TV show when I was still watching the cartoons on Wednesday. Through the years Wibi has become of the most famous and recognizable piano players in the Netherlands, but he plays worldwide including Carnegie hall in New York.

 

We met Wibi in the start of 2002 and became somewhat of friends, when he wanted new images for some press releases I offered to shoot them and he said yes, I actually panicked because I never shot someone that was this famous and although I knew Wibi it still scared the “you know what” out of me. However it went ok (more than) and the images got used for almost all publications, CDs, books etc. Over the years Wibi used my images almost exclusively for all his releases and promotion and every once in a while we plan a day and shoot a load of images that will keep the promotion machine going for a few months 😀

 

Now with a classical pianist you might not think about spectacular live concerts, however with Wibi there are always surprises, and because I know him I also know where to stand, and luckily for me I have cart blanche where ever he plays to move around and shoot what ever I want. Yesterday it was time for a very special concert. Wibi is playing 3 celebration concerts in a sold out “concert gebouw” in Amsterdam (which is unique), yesterday it was the second concert called “the Pianist” it was the first we were able to attend because with the first one we were not in the Netherlands. The third and final part will be in January called “the composer”. Now shooting the “concert gebouw” is always special, the light is a nightmare but the ambience is superb, today I’m proud to share some of my personal favorite shots from the concert.

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