"Mirjam Bleeker has a gift. It is not meant pompous or unworldly, no, it is simply a fact.

Mirjam has the ability to see more than the ordinary person. It is difficult to explain, but her pictures capture the invisible. This is what makes her an exceptional photographer.

I have experienced this myself throughout the years on our voyages all over the world to document special stories, inter alia, for Happinez.

She sees the light where others see the shadow, joy where others see poverty and people, children flutter around her to be seen through her eyes. They shoot towards her, and she shoots back.... with her camera.

Then she doesn't only capture the moment, the colors, the movement, but most of all she holds on to what you cannot see, but what you can feel. It is this that makes Mirjam so extraordinary. She takes pictures of emotions. The invisible becomes visible. This is what happens in her pictures.

A selection? That is almost impossible. As a team we thought in documentaries and stories, thus, pictures and texts had to complement each other.
But having to take a choice for one picture to be magnified? That is something different. Therefore I have chosen a few images that tell a little story."

Inez van Oord