Divided States of America

Divided States of America

Dutch Daily AD published The Divided States of America on October 27, 2018.

It’s a photo essay about the political division in the United States around the Midterm Elections on November 6, 2018.  How are Americans feeling about Trump’s divided America? Left and right America live in different worlds. Except on the California Zephyr train, from Chicago to San Francisco, passing through 7 politically different States. Therefore we chose to travel on this transcontinental railroad that was once build to unite the nation after the Civil War in the 19th century. If travelers did not have to travel for months on prairies and mountains to make contact with the residents on the other side of the country, that would bring the United States literally and figuratively closer together, Abraham Lincoln thought. In a sense, the train is fulfilling that role now.

 

Migrant Caravan |  Tijuana, Mexico

Migrant Caravan | Tijuana, Mexico

Dutch Daily AD published an article about the Refugee Caravan in Tijuana, Mexico on December 8th, 2018.

After traveling for months, migrants from Central America have reached the border between Mexico and the US.  Thousands of migrants stranded trying to escape the violence and poverty in Central America. They’ve been walking and hitchhiking for months. And now the border appears to be closed. This is the ‘invasion of migrants’ that President Trump warned about. He tightened the rules for asylum applications and only treated a few dozen applications per day in Tijuana, Mexico. He sent the army to the southern border and assured soldiers that deadly violence was permitted to prevent the migrants illegally crossing the border. Tear gas was used when a group of migrants ran to the border fence.

 

The legacy of Selma Engel | Dutch Daily ‘De Volkskrant’

The legacy of Selma Engel | Dutch Daily ‘De Volkskrant’

Selma Engel-Wijnberg (96) died on December 4, 2018, the last Dutch survivor of the extermination camp Sobibor in Poland. Just before her death, Alida Engel (72) and Tagan (42) , Selma’s oldest daughter and granddaughter, talk at the kitchen table in New Haven – Connecticut, about the long shadow of the camp and their worries about the re-emergence of anti-Semitism.

Published in Dutch daily ‘De Volkskrant’ on December 8th 2018.