SONN FRANKEN 1962 As a photographer-journalist, I capture stories and moments in both words and images. As a writer, I also enjoy bringing these two disciplines together in the same way. For me, photography is more than a hobby; it is a means of giving my words greater power and of capturing beauty and emotion in such a way that a message can be conveyed. I am the seventh child in a post-war working-class family of eight and I live in Bergen op Zoom. Even at school, my notebooks were filled with self-invented stories, embellished with decorations drawn in ink pen. Once I entered the Gymnasium, my interest in the written word was only further ignited by reading stories and poetry—not only in Dutch, but also in languages such as Latin, German, English, and French. In 2013, I published my first book, De oversteek (The Crossing), a fantasy novel. It left me wanting more, and since then I have published 18 works. The writer within me had awakened. By now, more than 50 poems and short stories have found their way into national and international anthologies, websites, and magazines. Much of my poetry is accompanied by my photographs, allowing me to continuously merge words and images. It has been a privilege to witness special moments and events as a photographer-journalist—a privilege I continue to enjoy when reporting for my own news website, BoZinBeeld.nl. Photography grants me a unique perspective, one I can always look back on with pleasure. It offers me a personal mirror of the world.