On Tour with Jacco Gardner — Meet our LomoAmigo Keez Groenteman

Keez is a very passionate Lomographer and musician. He's part of the band of Dutch artist Jacco Gardner and together they've been touring almost around the world for the last year. We have asked him for a selection of his analogue tour pictures and impressions of 2013. We are now very happy to share them with you along with this wonderful interview. Meet our latest LomoAmigo from the Netherlands!

NAME: Keez Groenteman
CITY: Amsterdam
COUNTRY: Netherlands

Hey Keez! Tell us a secret about yourself.

I am scared of E.T.

You are the guitarist of Jacco Gardner. How is it to be part of his crew?

It's really great. We have to spend an insane amount of time together but we are doing very well. Being on tour can be really tiring but having fun together and playing for good people everywhere makes it an easy and rewarding job.

You’ve been traveling a lot lately. It seems like you have seen the whole world already. Which country was your favorite so far?

I am always very excited about going to the USA because it is such a different kind of world that we are used to in The Netherlands. The people are so open and responsive, and it's the most rewarding place to take photos because everything is so classic. But when it comes to food and hospitality I'd say France is my favorite.

You’re an active Instagrammer but you are also shooting analogue. What makes both mediums special for you?

In a way, both mediums are kind of similar because you have to decide which moments are worth enough to keep, instead of just shooting away with a digital camera and ending up with a thousand pictures. Instagram has this great thing about it that you share your pictures right away, also for my friends and loved ones to keep track of what I'm up to when I'm far away from home. The filters add a charm you don't have with regular iPhone pictures I think. Analogue pictures, on the other hand, have a kind of magic no digital way of photography can ever replace. You have to think of the camera and film you're using, be aware of your surroundings more because the film is sensitive to it. Also, analogue cameras have so much character and there is nothing more rewarding than being on tour for a month and then pick up and scan the photos, seeing the result for the first time and be surprised again by things you saw before.

Your analogue companions on tour are a Holga 35mm camera, a Fisheye and a Praktica. Which one is your favorite and why?

The Holga is my favorite. It was my first analogue camera and I love the shape, look, and weight of it. I also love the double exposure function which makes you think in a different way.

Any funny or strange encounters you’ve had while using your cameras on tour?

I can't really think of anything funny. But it's a nice thing that Jasper Geluk (our sound guy) also got affected by my analogue photography euphoria and is now using cameras his father bought in the seventies.

If the photos you have taken had a soundtrack (3 songs), what would it be? It can be one of your own songs or any other song.

Youth Lagoon - Dropla: The last Youth Lagoon reminds me so much of our first US tour. I was constantly looking through the Holga finder waiting for pictures to take.

Kelley Stoltz – Ventriloquist: This record I listened to after I met Hannah, my girlfriend who was working at the Lomography store in Berlin at that time. She gave me the Holga and brought out the photographer in me.

Kurt Vile – Was All Talk: Also from an album I listened to a lot while touring. It has a tension in it that goes very well with all the feelings that come with being on the road for a long time.

Who would you choose if you could hang out with a person, dead or alive, for a day and capture the experience on film?

I think I'd go for Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo. I am a great video-game lover and he came up with some of my favorite game series (like Zelda and Mario). I would like to hang out with him in some pretty Japanese garden and take some serious portraits (because he is always smiling on pictures). I think I would also try to convince him to make a new Pokémon Snap game, a great photography based game for the Nintendo 64.

Is there a Lomography product you want for Christmas this year?

I always need film, film, film. I have a nice collection of cameras I am still discovering but I'd like to have a bunch of nice slide and b/w films for Christmas.

Tell us about your future plans. Any upcoming projects?

Until February 2014, we will be on tour practically all of the time. The rest of next year is kind of open for me and I am sure I will spend more time making my own music instead of touring with Jacco Gardner. I hope I will be able to tour like I am doing now with Jacco, but then with a project that is more my own. I also can't wait to experiment more with all the cameras I collected this year.

Thanks for the interview Keez!

Check out more of Keez analogue pictures on his Flickr account while listening to Jacco Gardner or his solo project highthemoon.

written by zonderbar on 2013-11-13 #people #music #lomo-amigo #interview #tour #praktica #holga #fisheye #lomoamigo #keez #jacco-gardner