Jeroen Swolfs

About Jeroen Swolfs

“All the places I have visited are special in their own way; some because they really made me feel good, others because they shocked me. All their stories deserve to be told. I keep being amazed about how life unfolds in all these places at the same time; in innumerable different ways, shapes, colors, religions and surroundings. And I keep seeing the same beautiful things humans are capable of everywhere. That’s the principle idea behind Streets of the World: showing how much we are alike, not how different we are.”

After his study at the Photo Academy Amsterdam, Jeroen Swolfs became a freelance photojournalist. While he was traveling to all corners of the world, he started to focus on political and social issues, which resulted in series about returned Serbian refugees and several series about the Roma minorities in Eastern Europe.

Swolfs is currently working on his project Streets of the World. In six years time Swolfs is traveling to every capital city in the world to make a photo of street life in the city centre. All of these photographs together will create an image of the world’s population at the beginning of the 21st century. The project takes him from Asia to America and via Africa to Europe, where he will take his last street photo in 2015.

In May 2011 National Geographic published his first book about the adventures in Asia. In June 2011 twenty of his street photos were exhibited in the city centre of The Hague. Swolfs has given lectures in Johannesburg, Rotterdam, Frankfurt and Maastricht and is a blogger for Huffington Post.

His adventures in nearly 100 countries he visited so far show that anything is possible. His inspiring story is about the power of dreams and how to transform them into a tangible project. Swolfs talks openly about the opportunities and pitfalls he encountered as a photojournalist, entrepreneur and traveler and about the perseverance you need to realize your dream. His style is loose and amusing.

This presentation is very suitable for meeting intended to inspire and motivate. The global nature of Streets of the World is also ideal for an international audience.