Biography
Kadir Van Lohuizen (The Netherlands) began his career as a professional freelance photojournalist in 1988 covering the Intifada. He has covered conflicts in Africa and elsewhere, and is best known for his long-term projects on the seven rivers of the world, the rising of sea levels, the diamond industry and migration in the Americas.
In 1997 he embarked on an immense project to travel along the seven rivers of the world, from source to mouth, covering daily life along these lifelines. The project resulted in the book Aderen, the seven rivers of the world.
In 2004 he returned to Angola, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo to portray the diamond industry, following diamonds from mines to the consumer markets in the Western world. The resulting exhibitions were shown in Europe, the USA, and in the mining areas of the Congo, Angola and Sierra Leone. The photography book Diamond Matters, the diamond industry was awarded the prestigious Dutch Dick Scherpenzeel Prize for best reporting on the developing world. The project was also recognized with a World Press Photo Award.
From 2011 to 2012, Kadir embarked on Via PanAm; a visual investigation on migration in the Americas. In a 12 month period, he travelled along the Pan American Highway from Terra del Fuego in Patagonia to Deadhorse in Northern Alaska. Originally conceived as an interactive application for the iPad, Via PanAm was also made into a travelling interactive multimedia based exhibition, installation and book.
With the project Where will we go, Kadir looked at the global consequences of rising sea levels caused by climate change. The project is designed to highlight both the immense complexities associated with in-island and inter-island/country movement, and the human rights implications involved in such displacements.
Kadir Van Lohuizen’s latest project Wasteland begun in 2016, investigates how six megacities around the world (Jakarta, Tokyo, Lagos, New York, São Paulo and Amsterdam) manage or mismanage their waste. ILEX is proud to have premiered moving stills, using drone footage from the Lagos chapter of this series at Unseen (Amsterdam) 2017.