Mobile Photography & Art – ‘Intimate Interview’ with Nicole Christophe from Amsterdam, Netherlands

I don’t remember any life spanning ambitions when I grew up. Actually I am pretty sure I had no idea what I wanted to be as a child, and this hasn’t changed yet. One ambition that I do clearly remember is my determination to take a picture of a grasshopper. I was a young teenager with a very basic analog camera (a practica ltl) and no money for prints. So it had to be right in one try. I remember chasing after one of these little creatures for a long time until finally it stopped jumping and I got my shot. I was over the moon when it turned out to be a beautiful picture.

As a digital artist, showing one of my pictures to someone whose judgement I valued a lot. A bit hesitantly, because she had no idea I was creating artworks like this. The astonishment in her voice telling me that it was beautiful and amazing and touching gave me the courage to go on.

Translating medicine labels from Dutch into Latin for a pharmaceutical company that wanted to break into the international market. It was very uninspiring, but paid for my trip to India, so in the end it was really worth it.

In the Netherlands we don’t really have the distinction between private and state schools, or at least, we didn’t when I was growing up. It is slowly changing now. I did go to a brilliant high school that taught me everything I wanted to know about science, the world, ancient and modern languages and many things about life in general. And since I have always been a very curious person, they taught me a lot.  

University. I studied philosophy, (a bit of) artificial intelligence and history and languages of South Asia. Eventually I got my MA in comparative philosophy (writing a thesis on Zhuangzi and the philosophy of language).

I wish I had one. I have met many people who inspired me. Teachers, friends, people I admire. People that I have been creating for in my mind. In that I am lucky. But to find somebody who I would call a mentor would be amazing.

Quite. I recently got more inspired to take better care of my body and even though I am not there yet by a long way it feels good to get stronger.

I think with just talent and no ambition it is highly unlikely that you are going to be successful. You have to want to work towards something. The problem with this question is that we all define success in a different way. For me it means never running out of inspiration to create images that I find meaningful. For another person it might mean being able to live from selling art. Or maybe broad recognition.

Well… I have my opinions, and my ideals, but they mainly revolve about making this world a better place to live in for all creatures. Politics is nowadays often associated with that, people telling me I am very left of center. But I actually don’t care how that change comes, as long as it does come. Politics is just one way of getting there.

Time. (I know, you can’t own time, but I don’t need more things. I do really need more time. Although a decent camera would be nice too).

Once every one or two years, I take some days off work and caring for the family and I travel somewhere by myself. Normally I travel lightly and cheaply. But a couple of years ago I travelled for a whole week to see Queen + Adam Lambert in Toronto and visited Iceland on the way there. That trip was my biggest extravagance and the best decision I ever made.

Oh, so many. Enough to last several lifetimes. I would love to have my own art show some day. To work in a more creative environment. To make enough money so I can travel. I would love to have time to practice my art, to get better in making portraits. To be able to take good pictures of crowds. And trees. (Or maybe I should tackle these together). To learn to overthink less and laugh more. To get old with a sound mind.

In my mind

Anywhere on the road

Any place where my two little boys pile on me, almost suffocating me with arms and legs that have grown too long, still wanting to be close to me.

The conviction that I should get everything out of life that it has to offer.

Stupidity. Laziness. Arrogance. Egocentrism.

That my family is whole and functional and that my kids have had a good start in life in spite of the difficulties that were thrown our way.

That is a difficult one. I think she would be astonished at all that I’ve done in my life, but also surprised at the direction it has taken.

I bought a shawl during one of my travels through India and it was with me during a lot of significant moments there. After a New Year’s party, when travelling back home, I forgot it on the train, never to find it again.

To take care of our planet and each other.

Not in the way that I think I would be able to be conscious of it. But just as the body disintegrates and gets a new life in the circle of growth there might be a thing like a mind or a soul that returns to be a part of another consciousness. I find that to be a beautiful thought.

I can’t give one number, I’d have to draw a multidimensional graph. Some days it’s a 10, some days it’s a 3. Plenty of days in between. And even then, I sometimes am simultaneously very happy with a new piece of art I made and dead tired of the messiness of life. It probably would be possible to calculate an average but I don’t think it would really mean anything. I do count myself lucky because even though I had my share of difficulties, I always bounce back. So maybe I would put my baseline at 8 with dips and highs.

email

Facebook

Instagram

We have a small favour to ask. More people than ever are reading TheAppWhisperer.com and we could not be more excited about that. We specialise in mobile photography and mobile art and we value all of our readers, writers, contributors and viewers but we do have costs and we do need to ask for your help. We at TheAppWhisperer spend many hours each day, each week and each month to bring you this high quality level of journalism. We do it because we are passionate about it and because we want others to be as passionate too.

If everyone who reads our website, who likes it, helps to support it, our future would be so much more secure. Please help us by offering a contribution or supporting us with a monthly donation of your choosing.

[seamless-donations]