1978-1980
After working for De Geillustreerde Pers high end magazine Avenue in Amsterdam, as an editor, I resolved to work more internationally, as I had connections in the German press, and VNU (now the Nielsen Company), the publishing house that owned De Geillustreerde Pers, had by now acquired titles in the U.K. I spoke fluent German and English, an issue for anybody from The Netherlands is that our language footprint is small, and if we wish to expand our horizons we need to work in other languages. I traveled between Hamburg, Amsterdam and London, working for German publishers Gruner+Jahr as a stringer, and Zeit, as assistant to the Art Director, while writing for Dutch magazines and newspapers, and U.K. magazines. I started work as a technology writer for Design, the magazine published by U.K. government body The Design Council, while working for both VNU U.K. as a technology writer, and VNU Amsterdam as a roving editor, photojournalist and U.K. correspondent. In 1980, I had the privilege of working with Time Life photographer Co Rentmeester on a significant spread in the mass market German weekly Stern, backgrounding the coronation of Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands.