ADA VOGELAAR 20.10.1952 My name is Ade Vogelaar, born on October 20, 1952, in the Oude Westen district of Rotterdam. I am the youngest in a family of eight children. When I was four years old, our family moved to Schiebroek, which at that time was a new, young neighborhood in Rotterdam. I attended the HBS at the “Melanchthon” school community there. My father was a building engineer and taught at a technical secondary school (MTS) in Rotterdam, and my mother was a homemaker. My father made a lot of toys for us and also renovated our house. From him I learned many practical skills, such as bricklaying, tiling, painting, and more. My mother sewed and knitted many of our clothes, and I started doing this myself at an early age as well. I also enjoyed drawing, especially horses. After secondary school, I became a pharmacy assistant and worked at a pharmacy in Hillegersberg. In 1973 I got married, and my husband and I had three sons. We first moved to Twente and, after eight years, to the island of Tholen. There I became an activities coordinator in a nursing home, where I could truly express my creativity. I also started painting there, until a friend who was a photographer advised me to try photography. At first, I thought it would be too “easy”: just press a button and you’re done—very different from painting. But I was seriously mistaken. Photography is not that easy at all. Alongside photography, I have always continued drawing, knitting, sewing, and doing crafts. I enjoy “creating” and love working with my hands. Nowadays I draw more with colored pencils than I paint, which I find very calming. And I always have “something on the knitting needles.”