Hans Avontuur(Netherlands)
Hans Avontuur is a multi-award winning photographer and travel writer in the Netherlands. Since he couldn’t choose between his two passions – image and word – he decided to let them merge in a natural way. Looking as a photographer improves his writing and looking for stories improves the images. Hans works for the weekend magazine of Hollands largest daily newspaper AD and for the major travel magazines in his country like National Geographic Traveler, Wintersport Magazine, Mediterranee and Moto73.
His pictures have been used by companies in the travel trade like KLM, NS Dutch Railways and TUI. They also appeared in museums, events, travelguides and promotional campaigns for destinations such as Switzerland, Austria, Spain, USA, Turkey, Australia and Denmark.
His job as a professional traveler is not about traveling in the first place, but about stories, discovering landscapes, people and places that are inspiring, tell us something about the world and probably a little about ourselves too. In his work he looks for the images that make readers feel the heart and soul of a place, no matter if this is a lonely mountain range, superhot desert, freezing icecap, dynamic metropole, undiscovered village or famous tourist destination. Doing so he brings his gear to the test all year long.
A couple of years ago I got this feeling that my camera-gear became more and more a burden instead of a big plus. The heavy and bulky stuff was interfering with the freedom that one needs to feel for a good travel story. With the X-series I am back to where it’s all about. They give me the true spirit of traveling: light, flexible, silent and discrete. I love the handling of the X-series, the improved autofocus and the quality of the pics. And last but not least: thank you Fujifilm for bringing back the bright and vibrant colors of Provia and Velvia that I loved so much in the long gone analog-era!
