What happens when a girl from a small Belgian village chases her American dream, and then spends six years listening to the dreams of American girls? My guest today is Belgian photographer and filmmaker Eva Verbeeck. She had visited more than 45 countries before she turned 25, lived in the US for many years and now works from Amsterdam. Her portraits have appeared in Le Monde, National Geographic, The Washington Post, Der Spiegel and The Telegraph.

We recorded this conversation at CC De Factorij in Zaventem, days before her exhibition America's Girls opened there. Eva photographed close to 400 girls and young women aged 6 to 18 in 28 states, always with a large format camera and never more than two negatives per girl. We talk about the claustrophobic feeling of growing up in a small town, why a war photographer's advice made her turn to a story of her own, why she chose not to publish the girls' personal stories next to their portraits, and why she cried at the printing press in Italy. She also shares how she deals with the loneliness of photography, why she chooses film over photography (or the other way around), and why she stays hopeful about the medium in times of AI.

What you'll learn in this episode

• How a teenage dream in Tessenderlo, fed by magazine collages and pop culture, grew into a six-year project in the United States

• Why the advice "tell a story that is of yours" made Eva step away from heavy photojournalistic assignments and turn to her own fascination

• How she worked with a large format camera: self-selected participants, no Polaroids, and a strict rule of two negatives per girl

• Why she chose to keep the girls' written and spoken stories private, and how that choice created a safe space for them to speak openly

• What photography can do that film cannot, and why she still chooses to be hopeful about the medium in a time of AI

  
  

  Free webinar

  Want to know what the photographers who keep growing actually do differently? In a free webinar, I walk you through the five patterns I see again and again, in this podcast, in masterclasses and in my one-on-one mentoring, and how you can apply them in your own way. Sign up for free here: donkerekamer.com/five

  
  

  Live show: De Donkere Kamer on stage in Amsterdam

  On October 16, De Donkere Kamer goes on stage at Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam. We'll talk with Nadav Kander, who just opened his new show at Foam, Magnum photographer Bieke Depoorter and portrait photographer Robin de Puy, who has been photographing the US for many years. Wilfried de Jong stops by to talk about his Polaroid book, and as always, three promising photographers pitch their projects to the audience (in English too). Get your tickets here.

  
  

  Partner of this episode

  Cameranu As a photographer you need more than creativity. You also need the right tools, whether that's a new lens or a camera you can rely on during a client shoot. The specialists at Cameranu think along with you and give you honest advice. As a listener of De Donkere Kamer, you get 10% off your next purchase with code DDK10 at cameranu.be.

  
  

  Links and resources

  • Free webinar (5 patterns of photographers who keep growing): donkerekamer.com/five

  • Live show, October 16, Pakhuis de Zwijger Amsterdam: donkerekamer.com/shows

  • Mentoring, masterclasses and workshops: donkerekamer.com

  • Cameranu: cameranu.be (code DDK10)

  • Eva Verbeeck: evaverbeeck.com

  • Book: America's Girls, On the Edge of a Dream (GOST Books): gostbooks.com

  • Exhibition at CC De Factorij, Zaventem

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

If intuition is so central to photography, why do we give it so little room? That question stayed with me after my masterclass with Magnum photographer Peter van Agtmael, in which he called intuition the core of his work.

In this episode I look at what intuition is for a photographer, what drowns it out, and how you can call it up. I talk honestly about how I slip into autopilot during podcast interviews myself, and what happens when I let go of my preparation. I share what a photographer from Antwerp told me during a review: things are going well, the assignments keep coming in, and yet so much of it is autopilot.

From there I take you to Estancia El Condor in Patagonia, a five-hour drive from civilization, where I've been twice and came home different each time. I talk about the gauchos, about seven condors circling above our heads, and about Bastiaan Woudt, who, just like Peter, works from looking, feeling and letting it happen.

Workshop in Patagonia with Bastiaan Woudt (February 13 to 20, 2027): more infoQuestions, or want to spar about it? Send me a DM or email [email protected]

Replay of the Peter van Agtmael masterclass: sign up hereMy episode with Bastiaan Woudt (in Dutch): listen here

Partner of this episodeCameranuBesides creativity, as a photographer you also simply need the right tools, whether that's a new lens or a camera you can rely on during a client shoot. The specialists at Cameranu think along with you and give honest advice. Go to cameranu.be and use code DDK10 for 10% off.

More on mentoring, masterclasses and workshops, go to

What you'll learn in this episode

• What intuition really is: accumulated experience that works faster than your thinking, which is why you can only explain afterwards why an image works
• What drowns out intuition, from your smartphone and inbox to other people's feeds, and why you then mostly end up making what you already know
• What autopilot looks like in Kaat's own interviews, and why the conversations in which she lets go of her preparation are the best ones
• Why you have to install silence in your head yourself, because society won't hand it to you
• What Peter van Agtmael and Bastiaan Woudt, from two very different worlds, have in common in the way they work
• Why intuitive photography matters more now that a growing share of images were never actually photographed
• A reflection question to work with yourself: where in your life can you tap into your intuition more easily?

My guest today is one of the first photographers in Europe to work entirely in color, and the first guest to return to this podcast for a second time. Harry Gruyaert once dreamed of becoming a film director, until pop art and a trip to Morocco in the late 1970s pulled him toward photography instead. He has been a member of Magnum Photos since 1982 and has photographed the United States, Morocco, Europe, India and his own country, Belgium, in books including Made in Belgium and Roots.

We recorded this conversation at Hotel du Forum in Arles, where he has been coming for more than forty years, with his daughters and his seven-year-old grandson Elio close by. Harry is currently showing Sense of Place at Les Rencontres d'Arles, alongside a new book, and a second, more retrospective exhibition is running at Camera in Turin. We talk about what it means to stay excited about a place you already know, why he calls photography a love affair with its own ups and downs, and why the pictures he missed, a scene he saw without a camera, a roll he shot with no film in it, still stay with him decades later. He tells me about the printing process he shares with his assistant Albin, why he moved from Kodachrome to digital, discovering jazz at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair, and why he still calls himself a professional rather than an artist. We also talk about the coincidences that keep finding him, from Bieke Depoorter to Saul Leiter, and about the trust he puts in instinct over words.

What you'll learn in this episode

• Why Harry finds it harder to stay excited about a place the longer he knows it, and how he keeps rediscovering Morocco, India, New York and Belgium after decades of returning
• Why he insists he is a professional and a craftsman, not an artist, even after more than forty years as a Magnum member
• How the printing process with his assistant Albin, and the recent switch from Canson to Hahnemühle paper, is as much a part of the work as taking the picture
• Why the photographs he missed, one because he had no camera, one because there was no film in it, still matter more to him than most of the ones he actually got
• Why he calls himself "a kind of pickpocket" who works entirely on instinct, and how that shapes the way he moves through a city or a crowd
• What "sense of place" actually means to him, and why he keeps coming back to the idea that a photograph should say as much about a place and a time as it does about composition
• Why he believes being European, rather than American or exclusively French, has shaped the way he sees and travels

Free webinarWant to know what the photographers who keep growing actually do differently? In a free webinar, I walk you through the five patterns I see consistently in this podcast, in masterclasses and in my one-on-one mentoring, and how you can apply them yourself. Sign up here

Live show: De Donkere Kamer on stage in Amsterdam

On October 16, De Donkere Kamer goes on stage at Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam, in conversation with, among others, portrait photographer Nadav Kander. Tickets are 20 euros, so cost shouldn't be what holds you back. Get yours here.

Partner of this episodeAlongside creativity, photographers simply need the right tools, whether that's a new lens or a camera you can rely on during a client shoot. The specialists at Camera Nu think along with you and give honest advice. Head over to cameranu.be and use code DDK10 for 10% off your next purchase.

Links and resources

• Free webinar (5 patterns of photographers who keep growing): donkerekamer.com/webinar
• Live show, October 16, Pakhuis de Zwijger Amsterdam, with Nadav Kander: donkerekamer.com/shows
• All info on mentoring, masterclasses and workshops: donkerekamer.com
• Cameranu: cameranu.be (code DDK10)
• Harry Gruyaert's first appearance on the podcast, episode #177: here
• Sense of Place at Les Rencontres d'Arles:
• Harry Gruyaert retrospective at Camera, Turin:
• Harry Gruyaert at Gallery FIFTY ONE.

Last episode I took you through five insights from Tony Robbins' seminar Unleash the Power Within. By popular demand, here's part two, because there's one insight I wanted to unpack much further: pattern recognition.

In this episode I zoom in on two patterns I recognize in myself, patterns I also see constantly in the photographers I work with. The first is about control and safety, and how I build up resistance before I've even had the chance to feel anything. The second is about how hard I find it to truly close something off before starting something new, from an exhibition to a shoot to an entire season of my life.

Patterns aren't always big, but once you learn to recognize and flip them, they can have huge consequences, for your life, your business and your photography.

What you'll learn in this episode

• Why pattern recognition is, according to Tony Robbins, the foundation of every major transformation, and how that applies just as much to your photography practice as to your life
• How Kaat recognizes her own pattern of control and a strong need for safety, and how she learned to feel first and judge later
• Why Kaat finds it so hard to truly close something off before starting something new, from an exhibition to a goodbye to a new season of shows
• How to build in a moment, as a photographer, to consciously close off a project or a shoot, and why that shows up in your photos if you skip it
• Why small patterns can have the biggest consequences once you learn to recognize and flip them

Free webinar, five patterns of top photographersWhich patterns keep showing up in successful photographers? Kaat bundled five of them into a free webinar (just refreshed, with new examples), based on conversations with internationally renowned photographers. Sign up here for free

Show October 16th, Amsterdam

On October 16th, De Donkere Kamer lands at Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam, with Nadav Kander, Bieke Depoorter, Robin de Puy and Wilfried de Jong. Three up-and-coming photographers pitch their project live to the audience for a support package. Sign up to pitch at donkerekamer.com/pitch, or grab a ticket at donkerekamer.com/tickets.

Partners of this episodeAlongside creativity, you also just need the right tools as a photographer, whether that's a new lens or a camera you can rely on during a client shoot. Cameranu's specialists think along with you and give you honest advice. Go to cameranu.be and use code DDK10 for 10% off.

My guest today is a Brazilian visual storyteller who lives between France and Brazil. Carolina Arantes grew up in São Paulo, studied photography and journalism, and later earned a master's degree in cultural project development. Questions of gender identity and the lasting effects of colonial history run through her work, which she develops in personal projects alongside the communities she photographs. She has received the Firecracker Grant and the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation Grant, was invited by the Centre Pompidou for the thematic year Elles Font l'Art in 2020, and has been a National Geographic Explorer since that same year. Her work is part of the BNF collection and has appeared in the New York Times and National Geographic. Her book First Generation was shortlisted by LensCulture for best photobook in 2023, and her project Tombamento won the Human Rights Grant from Fundo Brasil.

We recorded this conversation live at Les Rencontres d'Arles, where her exhibition First Generation was on show for the first time in its complete form: eight years of portraits, interviews and found family archives, built around the daughters of African immigrants in France. Carolina tells me how she only allowed herself to call herself a photographer at 27, how a workshop with photographer Christopher Morris changed the course of her career, and why she built the project around listening before shooting. We talk about growing up between an artist mother and a business-minded father, what it means to belong to a country that doesn't always recognize you as part of it, and why editing, not shooting, is the hardest part of her process. She's also honest about the financial reality of staying in documentary photography, and what she still hopes to have contributed in five years.

What you'll learn in this episode

• Why it took Carolina until she was 27 to call herself a photographer, even though she'd been shooting since her teens, and what changed when she moved to France
• How a chance workshop with photographer Christopher Morris turned into years of assisting him on fashion and political assignments, and what that taught her about light and trust
• Why First Generation took eight years to build, and how it grew out of watching African nannies raise children in a country that doesn't always recognize those children as fully French
• How she combined her own portraits with found family archives to show the culture and traditions her subjects grew up with at home
• Why she calls editing, not shooting, the hardest part of the process, and how she learned to "choose her diamonds" instead of holding on to every image
• Why she's honestly still questioning whether she can keep making a living from photography, and what that says about the state of the medium today

Free webinar

Want to know what the photographers who keep growing actually do differently? In a free webinar, I walk you through the five patterns I see consistently, in this podcast, in masterclasses and in my one-on-one mentoring, and how you can apply them yourself. Sign up here: donkerekamer.com/webinar.

Live show: De Donkere Kamer on stage in Amsterdam

On October 16, De Donkere Kamer goes on stage at Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam, in conversation with, among others, portrait photographer Nadav Kander. Tickets are 20 euros, so cost shouldn't be what holds you back. Get yours at donkerekamer.com/shows.

Partner of this episode

Cameranu: Alongside creativity, photographers simply need the right tools, whether that's a new lens or a camera you can rely on during a client shoot. The specialists at Cameranu think along with you and give honest advice. Head over to cameranu.be and use code DDK10 for 10% off your next purchase.

Last week I sat in an arena in Cologne with 15,000 people, at Tony Robbins' seminar Unleash the Power Within. Four days, from early morning until late at night, together with five other entrepreneurial women from my Female Leaders club.

In this episode I take you through five insights I brought home from there, and they apply just as much to your photography practice as to your life. Pattern recognition, and how a pattern of carelessness once got me stuck in a long insurance case. Repetition is the mother of all mastery, and why talent matters far less than the reps you put in. Proximity is power, and why the people around you help decide how far you get. Where focus goes, energy flows, something I even feel when I take a bend on my bike in the Alps. And peak state, and how you can shift it in a snap.

Do you find this kind of insight useful? Let me know, because there might be a part two coming.

What you'll learn in this episode

• What pattern recognition is, and how a pattern of carelessness once got Kaat stuck in a long insurance case around the Edward Bertels exhibition
• Why "repetition is the mother of all mastery" and how reps, not talent, make the difference between photographers who keep growing and photographers who get stuck
• What "complexity is the enemy of execution" means, and why you need to break big goals into pieces to actually get them done
• Why "proximity is power" and how the people around you, personally and professionally, help decide how far you get
• How "where focus goes, energy flows" works, with a concrete example from cycling about taking a bend downhill
• What a "peak state" is and how you can train it with a simple ten-minute morning exercise

Free masterclass, five patterns of successful photographers

Which patterns keep showing up in successful photographers? Kaat bundled them into a free online masterclass, based on conversations with dozens of international photographers. Sign up for free.

Patagonia workshop

In February, Kaat is heading to a remote estancia in Argentinian Patagonia with Dutch photographer Bastiaan Woudt, for a week of photographing, deepening your practice and learning from each other. Eight spots, an intimate group, some are already taken. Full details here.

Partner of this episode

Cameranu Alongside creativity, you also just need the right tools as a photographer, whether that's a new lens or a camera you can rely on during a client shoot. Camera Nu's specialists think along with you and give you honest advice. Go to cameranu.be and use code DDK10 for 10% off.

Last time I told you why personal branding matters more than ever. Today I'll show you how to actually approach that, as a photographer, in 2026. I take you through my own path: starting a podcast as long form content, showing myself on my website, writing an about page (without AI, please), and figuring out what truly sets me apart from other photographers. I talk about a photographer I coach one-on-one who has the gift of putting people at ease, and about another who is a storyteller and suppressed that for a long time. I explain why I believe there are too many photographers who don't position themselves, and why a personal brand doesn't need to appeal to everyone to work. And I announce my strategy day: normally 1,500 euros, this week still at 799 euros, with code strategie.

What you'll learn in this episode

• Why long form content, like a podcast or a blog, is the best first step to build your personal brand, and why Insta stories are the opposite of that
• Why an about page on your website builds so much trust with a client, and why you write it yourself instead of letting AI generate it
• How to discover what makes you unique, in your image choices, your editing, your client contact, or a gift like putting people at ease
• Why photographers who don't know what sets them apart will never reach the right clients, no matter how good their photos are
• Why Kaat believes there are too many photographers, and why that's exactly why a personal brand matters so much
• How, like Stefan Vanfleteren and Rinus Van de Velde, you build an entire universe around your work instead of just a webshop, an exhibition or a book
• Why a personal brand doesn't need to appeal to everyone, and why that's exactly the point

strategy day

This week I'm putting my strategy day in the window, just once: a full day, one-on-one, in Antwerp or Amsterdam, lunch included. You choose the themes we dig into together, from personal branding to your portfolio, your website or your book project. Normally 1,500 euros, through Sunday midnight on September 6th at 799 euros (more than 700 euros off) with code strategie. Link here.

partner of the episode

Cameranu
Alongside creativity, photographers simply need the right tools, whether that's a new lens or a camera you can rely on during a client shoot. The specialists at Camera Nu think along with you and give honest advice. Head over to cameranu.be and use code DDK10 for 10% off your next purchase.

I’m going to tell you something you might not expect from someone who’s been sharing her personal story in her content for years: I wasn’t really into personal branding myself. For years, I built De Donkere Kamer without ever putting a face to it. In this episode—part 1 of a two-part series—I’ll explain what made me change my mind and why personal branding matters more today than ever before. There’s never been so much content, never so much AI-generated clutter, and an audience that’s both more critical and harder to engage than ever before. I’ll talk about my own boundaries—what I do share and what I never will—about the conversation with my husband Rik that revealed just how much the platform has come to define “me,” and about the photographer who contacted me to travel to Patagonia with him, based purely on a single personal episode. Personal branding doesn’t mean showing off your home or your family. It means making your perspective, your choices, and your taste visible—because that’s the only thing no one can take away from you.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

- Why Kaat resisted personal branding for years, and what ultimately changed her mind

- Why people today seek trust in a face and a name before they buy, and what that means for you as a photographer

- What personal branding is—and isn’t: not a selfie culture, not oversharing, but making your perspective, your choices, and your taste visible

- Why photographers so often think their photos should speak for themselves, and why that’s no longer enough today

- How Kaat sets her own boundaries in what she shares, and why those boundaries actually provide peace of mind rather than limitation

- Why photography, as a medium in crisis, offers so much room to stand out precisely because of that

My strategy day

This week, I’m offering a one-time special on my strategy day: a full day of one-on-one work where we’ll tackle the topics you want to address, from positioning and personal branding to your portfolio or book concept. Normally 1,500 euros, but this week through Sunday at midnight, it’s 799 euros with the code “strategy.” All info here.

Partner of the episode

As a photographer, in addition to creativity, you also simply need the right tools—whether that’s a new lens or a camera you can rely on during a client shoot. The specialists at Cameranu work with you to find the best solution and provide honest advice. Visit their site and use code DDK10 for a 10% discount.

This summer I set off on my bike from our house in the Auvergne, with Alpe d'Huez as the finish line. Four days, 500 kilometers and roughly 7,500 meters of elevation gain, on my own, from one chambre d'hôte to the next. I did it to cheer on my husband Rik, who climbed the col together with thirty colleagues from Mediafin for Climbing for Life, in support of the Diabetes Liga.

In this episode, I take you along. Not as a travel report, but as a mirror. Because everything I ran into along the way, nerve pain in my foot that slowed me down from day one, an Oura ring flagging overtraining, a route I'd misjudged, a thunderstorm on the final climb, is something I recognize one-to-one in what I see every day with the photographers I coach. And in myself, as an entrepreneur.

I'll tell you how I dealt with a body that wasn't cooperating, why pushing through is not the same as forcing yourself, how you let go of control without giving up, and why pausing to acknowledge a win matters just as much as the win itself. And I land on my biggest core value: freedom. Do you recognize something of yourself in pushing through when things get hard? Then this episode is for you.

Highlights from this episode

• The starting point: why Kaat cycled to Alpe d'Huez, for Rik and Mediafin's Climbing for Life
• Day one: 155 kilometers and over 2,000 meters of elevation gain, nerve pain in her foot, and an Oura ring flagging overtraining
• The decision not to stop, and why "ten kilometers at a time" worked
• Why photographers stop too soon, right before the momentum arrives: "reculer pour mieux sauter"
• A misjudged route to the chambre d'hôte in the Vercors, and why letting go was the only option
• The final climb to Alpe d'Huez, in a thunderstorm, crossing the finish alone
• What the trip confirmed about freedom as her biggest core value, and why that's the reason Kaat became an entrepreneur

Coming to Patagonia?

Want to experience that combination of travel, challenge and depth yourself, camera in hand, alongside one of today's most renowned portrait photographers? In February 2027 I'm heading to a remote estancia near El Calafate, Patagonia, together with Bastiaan Woudt. Eight spots, a group that's well matched, and an experience that sends you home different than you arrived. All info at donkerekamer.com/patagonia. Not sure it's for you? Feel free to book a call with Kaat.

Partner of this episode

CameranuAlongside creativity, photographers simply need the right tools, whether that's a new lens or a camera you can rely on during a client shoot. The specialists at Camera Nu think along with you and give honest advice. Head over here and use code DDK10 for 10% off.

What do you do when a subject simply isn't photogenic? Paolo Woods, born in The Hague and raised in Florence, built his entire career around that question. From an investigation into the oil industry to a book on tax havens and the five-year project Happy Pills on the pharmaceutical industry, he keeps choosing subjects where his first reaction is "oh no, what am I actually going to photograph here." In this episode, recorded during Les Rencontres d'Arles, Paolo talks about why research is his most important tool, how his mother unknowingly shaped his obsession with text and image, and why he spent four years as artistic director of the photography festival Cortona On The Move.

Intro

I recorded this episode during Les Rencontres d'Arles, with Paolo Woods: photographer, researcher, and artistic director of Cortona On The Move since 2022. His projects never take the obvious subject. He seeks out exactly the things he first thinks are impossible to photograph. From oil to tax havens to the pharmaceutical industry, he keeps finding a language to make the invisible visible.

What you'll learn in this episode

• Why research is Paolo's most important tool for turning non-photogenic subjects into photographable ones.
• How he led Cortona On The Move for four years, and why he chose one strong yearly theme instead of "the best of photography."
• Why a lack of access, as with Federico Vespignani's work on Gaza, can actually produce stronger work.
• What the five-year project Happy Pills reveals about our obsession with control and happiness.
• Why, after years of collaboration, he's now working on his first fully personal, solo project.

About the guest

Paolo Woods was born in The Hague in 1970 to Dutch and Canadian parents, raised in Florence, and later lived in London, Paris, Haiti and Ivory Coast. He started out running a photography gallery in Florence and then built a career around long-term, research-driven projects: from Un Monde de Brutes (2003, on the oil industry) and American Chaos (2004, on the Western intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq), to Chinafrica on China's expansion into Africa, translated into eleven languages and sold more than 40,000 copies. That was followed by Veil On My Eyes on Iran, The Havens on tax havens (named one of the best photo books of 2015), and Happy Pills, a five-year project on the pharmaceutical industry that grew into a book, a touring exhibition and his first film. Since 2022 he has been artistic director of Cortona On The Move. His work has appeared in eight books and in The New York Times, Le Monde and The Guardian, with exhibitions from the US to China, and he has won two World Press Photo awards.

Links and resources

• Paolo Woods, website
• Cortona On The Move
• Les Rencontres d'Arles

• Previous episode with Kira Pollack (on AI and photojournalism): #267 on De Donkere Kamer

Our partner: Cameranu

This episode is brought to you in part by Cameranu. For your own photography gear, whether it's a new lens or a camera you can rely on during a client shoot, their specialists think along with you and give honest advice. As a listener of De Donkere Kamer, you get 10% off your next purchase with code DDK10

Free webinar

What growing photographers consistently do differently from everyone else: that's the subject of a free webinar, based on patterns Kaat has seen over the years in top photographers through this podcast, in masterclasses and in 1:1 mentoring. Five things, and how to apply them in your own way. Sign up here

Masterclasses

Every month, De Donkere Kamer organizes an online masterclass with an international top photographer.

• August 27, 4:00 PM – Ebrahim Alipour (Iranian documentary photographer and World Press Photo winner) on how to build a project without budget, without access, and without a network.
• Coming up – Magnum photographer Peter van Agtmael, topic to be announced.

You can join live or buy the replay for a small additional fee. All the info here