The morning that I took this photograph, I woke up, and without waking anyone else up, walked out of the room with my camera. I was in Bladel, in The Netherlands. It was the 10th of June, 2018.
This was, like my last post, taken directly outside my hotel, Hotel Bladel, on the intersection of Maximalaan and Beatrixlaan.
The night before, Dune Rats had performed in a shed (that had trees growing in it) at Best Kept Secret music festival in Hilvarenbeek, 20 minutes drive from our hotel. We were on tour with Wavves for a quick tour of Western Europe.
After the band finished playing, they were taken away by the artist liaisons and I stayed behind to pack up.
I didn’t realise at the time, but the band was trying to call my mobile phone to ask if I needed help, however their calls weren’t going through.
The stage manager pointed out there was no gear storage at the stage. I had to either carry all the gear by myself or leave it in a field filled with festival goers and hope nothing got stolen. I obviously went for option A and found a fridge trolley on to which I somehow managed to load all the gear (around 90kg) and loaded BC’s cymbals on to my back. I then walked the 1.5km back to the carpark in the 32C heat as the tires on the trolley slowly deflated.
On this walk the following morning, this wonderful woman was riding towards me. I quickly made this photograph as she rode by and we smiled at each other as she rode on. In our very fleeting interaction she exuded independence, strength and fun.
