'Phew, that is very difficult—I have so many favorites. Still, it is interesting to ask a photographer about a 'favorite' photograph. It offers an intimate glimpse of what continually motivates someone to take pictures.
I chose a candid color photograph with a story, published in my photo book Dream and Reality, which came out last year. I made it while my studio was based in Amsterdam, from 1989 to 1999. At the time, I traveled daily by train from my home in The Hague to Amsterdam Central Station, then took tram line 1 to the Herengracht.
On a sunny winter day, I saw a bus full of Russian sailors driving toward Dam Square right beside the tram. Instead of going to my studio, I hurried to the square, which was teeming with Russian sailors and blond women in traditional dance costumes. Strict Russian guards in uniform surrounded the scene because a dance and music performance was about to take place.
The sailors were changing in an open military truck. But this time I had no camera with me! What could I do? The studio was too far away, so I ran to Nieuwendijk and quickly bought two Fuji-brand panoramic disposable cameras with plastic lenses, then ran back to the 'open-air studio.' The young men were surprised to see me taking photographs but fortunately paid little attention to me. Only Andrew—the man in the foreground—spoke a little English. I promised to send all the photographs, which I did, and he thanked me at length in a moving letter.'
Name: Willy Jolly (Batavia 1946)
Residence: The Hague
Info: www.willyjolly.nl
