Spitsbergen and the Dutch go way back. Willem just returned from another great trip to Svalbard, or Spitsbergen as the Dutch say. His father joined…
White magic in Svalbard
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The making of Phanhabs Savanna’s change of seasons
The illustrations in my books are a mix of photographs, drawings and collages. The picture of the elephants on the left was taken by us in the Masai Mara on one of our safaris. I used it to illustrate the change of seasons in the savanna, where thunderclouds building up announce the rainy season. For the illustration I changed the background of the picture and the light on the elephants became...
Eröffnung Ausstellung Wild Picha in Galerie Lehmweg 33
Am Freitag wurde in Gallerie Lehmweg 33 in Hamburg die Wild Picha Ausstellung eröffnet. Sie zeigt Afrika Fotografien in schwarz-weiß von Willem und Tanja Dekker. Galeristin Johanna Beil sprach bei der Eröffnung die Bücher an, die Tanja Dekker herausbringt..., "die sich (wen wundert´s) um Afrika drehen. Hier mischt und webt Tanja Dekker ihrer beider Fotografien mit illustratorischen Mitteln zu...
Wild Picha – Willem & Tanja Dekker Photography
We grew up in the Netherlands and moved to Germany in 2003. Together with our dog Duvel we now live in the picturesque Treppenviertel in Hamburg, along the river Elbe. Willem currently works at a ship-owning company. After a career in marketing, Tanja studied illustration design and started her own book publishing company, twikga, in 2010. We started traveling together in 1992, when we...
Work in progress on Phanhabs Jungle book
We have just returned from a trip to Tanzania and Rwanda, watching primates. The hikes were sometimes long and itchy, because of the vegetation, but we took some amazing pictures of jungle landscapes with chimpanzees, gorillas, and a lot of other animals. It will be a lot harder to fill the pages of this Phanhabs book, because the jungle hides it's inhabitants well. The tracks and the sounds...
Where do you get your pictures from?
When people look at my books, they ask me: "Where do you get your pictures, from the internet?" They are surprised to hear that my husband and I take all the pictures ourselves. For my illustrations, I need pictures of animals in all kinds of positions. You couldn't buy a picture of an elephant walking away, in bad light, from a stock agency. Normally wildlife photographers do not take that kind...
Back from the field office
We just returned from a great safari to Kenya, where we gathered exciting new raw material for future books! "5.30, good morning, tea is ready", does not sound like holiday for many people. For us it does, but I also call it our field office. Get up early to catch the morning light. Beat the dust and bumpy roads. Be patient and wait for things to happen. Hope for animals to behave in a certain...
The travel bug at work
InterRailing during my student days gave me the travel bugs. Together with my boyfriend - by now my husband - we traveled around the world for 6 months as soon as I finished my studies. Patagonia, hiking in the Andes, bungee jumping in New Zealand, diving on the Great Barrier Reef, banana pancakes in Indonesia, ... and we have traveled since. About 15 years ago we went to see "the big zoo", as...
