Nico Bastens Photography fotonique ®

Nico Bastens or Fotonique ® was born and raised in Maastricht, The Netherlands. He is an autonomous photographer who professionalized by following the 3-year study to professional photographer at the Nederlandse Fotovakschool. He graduaded in 2009, specialized in documentary.
In 2011 he continued studying for a higher degree at the Fotoacademie in Amsterdam, again in documentary photography for which he graduated cum laude in June 2012.
As he himself says: ” Documentary photography is the photography of life. In images it affects social affairs, describes all day reality and deals about things which are vanishing. It is the art to capture this reality, those moments, situations and expressions in one single or combination of all saying photographic images. Therein lies my fascination and great love for it. Documentary photography is a challenge, because there are so many things which are out of your control. Unlike in a studio the scenery, the people, the happening and the light aren’t yours. You cannot direct it, it’s just there and it just happens. It’s up to you to be there, to see it and seize the moment in which everything fits together. For that you have to be patient and sometimes it just doesn’t happen.”
Although he has a preference for black and white photography he does not exclude colour. In his own words: “Black and white photography brings one back to the essence of the subject. It doesn’t distracts the viewers eye by colours which are of no importance to that scenery, he can concentrate and focus himself on the essence in the image. However, in other cases the colours give the image power and meaning. It’s up to the photographer to decide.”