Paul takes us to a very special place today, to Curaçao to meet Mama Kanoa. Painting only to record her dreams, her workspace is humble and pure much like Mama Kanoa herself. Thank you Paul for sharing such a beautiful story. -  Jenny x

This is a special story for me. Normally I let my images tell the story, but sometimes it is the experience behind the images that is the most memorable part of my work.

I was in Curaçao with Eric Kuster, a Dutch interior designer, and we were shooting our second book together. Curaçao is part of the old Dutch colonies, located in the Caribbean Sea, just north of Venezuela. It has a population of 140,000 with a diverse mix of ethnic backgrounds and yet in some places, it was like I had not even left Amsterdam as the Dutch still have a strong influence on this island.

I was put in contact with a well-known artist on the island through a friend, but despite several attempts, we were not able organise a meeting. In the mean time, a friend took me to his local surf-beach and he suggested that I might like to meet a lady who lived nearby.

Mama Kanoa is in her 70s and sells snacks to the locals who visit the beach. She started to paint because she wanted to record her dreams.

She was a very sincere and humble person and seemed to be a little bewildered that I wanted to photograph her space as she was not seeking an audience for her work. But I feel just as grateful when people allow me to photograph them. Through Where They Create I have found a way to fuse my passion for meeting people and traveling while using photography as a way to document it all.

- Paul

Today, Paul shares more on the realities of shooting for Where They Create as well as reminding us of the virtues of patience and persistence. The photographs Paul has included today make for a great example of the beauty hiding everywhere. – Jenny x

I had been working on Where They Create more on than off for over 5 months when I started to run out of studios through my circle of friends and I started to think about a wish list of places that I would like to have access to. Fantastic Man has been a favorite magazine of mine for many years and I decided to contact them. They told me that they were not ready and to try them again in 6 months time. It was worth the wait.

The thing I love the most about doing the project is the surprise I get when I see where and how creative people work and the objects that studios and people surround themselves with. In many ways, you need to let go of any expectations because they get blown out the window.

I am always surprised to learn at how much more studios do than you realize…For instance – Fantastic Man don’t just publish magazines. They also do the catalog for COS (H&M’s upmarket label) and they also have their own perfume line. Located in a classic late 1960′s building in the middle of Amsterdam, in an office that was much smaller than I had expected,  I initially found this space quite dry and a bit of a challenge to shoot. However, I found more and more to like about the space while I was shooting. It usually takes around two hours to shoot the studios and people go about their work as I am doing it.

Where They Create has opened many doors for me. While on one end of the spectrum, I find myself photographing a high-profile publication, on the other end is finding myself meeting a painter at her studio on a little island in the Caribbean…

- Paul

Today Paul takes us on a trip to Rome to visit the studio of one of his oldest friends, Jebila Wolfe-Okongwu. A dark and moody space full of sculptures and paintings, I’m not surprised that it inspired Paul to start building Where They Create. – Jenny x

The reason why Jeb is an important part of my project is not only because he is an old mate from art school or that I admire his work, but because it is in his house/studio in Rome, that I started to build the website for Where They Create.

Jeb had asked me to shoot his studio for his own website, and I realised that I wanted to collate together a series of photos of all the past studios that I had shot. Talking the idea over with Jeb and another visiting Aussie friend, Michael Nicolaci, (who helped me with the name of the website) confirmed that I was on the right track.

After following Jeb’s work over the last 15 years, in which he gradually embraced his African heritage, I found that photographing his studio was a very natural and organic process, which gave me satisfaction that was different to my work as a commercial and interior photographer. It made me want to find more studios in which I would photograph behind those closed doors…

- Paul