People, cultures, travel
Hi! My name is Monique Tekstra-van Lochem.
I am a Cultural Anthropologist, hence the name Antropo-Mo.
For as long as I can remember, I have loved to travel
and I have been interested in people around the globe.
The more different they or their lifestyle seemed to me, the more interested I was.
By the age of 8 I drew pictures of African villages
and I created people from all around the world from my fingers.
When I was 17 I was allowed to make a big journey for the first time: I lived with a family in South Africa for 6 weeks. This literally opened the world to me.
So after my graduation there was nothing my parents could do
to keep me in The Netherlands. I had to go abroad.
From that moment I have been traveling all around the world
and I have met the most beautiful people from various cultures.
Writing & storytelling
Writing is my long time passion. I love to read and listen to people's stories. But my biggest interest is to learn what circumstances, choices, culture, convictions, habits and beliefs (religion) do with people. How they influence them in their (daily) lives. I really like to dive into a person to get to know and understand him or her. And then tell what I have learned to others.
I am convinced that the better we listen to each other and learn about each other's ways of thinking, believing and living, the more respect it creates. But it also makes people understand why other's live the way they do and it makes us see that we all cope with the same dilemmas and dreams.
And that in the end, we are all human.
"If we only listened to each other and tried to understand, we would find out that in the end we are all humans."
Photography
For a long time I thought my camera would be an obstacle between me and the person I was in contact with. But since a couple of years I have found out that the camera can actually be a bridge between me and the one portrayed. So nowadays my camera is my third eye when I am discovering a person's life, country or culture. Because of its small viewfinder I often feel myself being drawn into the circumstances even more.
My main photography focus is on portrait photography and documentary photography of people and their culture. But I will only take pictures after I have heard their story and I have got to know them. I believe that only when I know the person or a culture, I can photograph him or her as his or her most ultimate self.
"My camera is my third eye when I am discovering a person's life, country or culture."
* * * Prizes & Publications * * *
Below image from my series My street was chosen as one of the winners by Bibliotheek Eemland for their permanent exhibition.
Below image from my series Sup girls was elected as one of the finalists of the Summer Photo Competition by the newspaper Stad Amersfoort.
For the magazine Beleef Vathorst, I interviewed and photographed families from different cultural backgrounds.
In February 2020 I managed the instagram account of @tijdvooramersfoort. Therefore I interviewed and photographed inhabitants of Amersfoort about their favourite place in the city.
