People 1st place winner

Since the 17th century, more than 1000 windmills were constructed in the area around the Zaanse Region, creating the first industrial zone in Europe. The windmills were used to grind spices, produce paint, saw wood, and make oil. To make mills work, millers are needed and their training is extensive. Since 2017 the miller's craft is included on UNESCO's list of "the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.” The goal of these images, taken at the Zaansche Schans, is to spur interest in the new generation to conserve, learn, and work with these historical wind factories.

Jeroen Nieuwhuis was born in Oldenzaal, the Netherlands in 1991. His first encounter with photography came through his passion for skateboarding. The day he turned 11 years old he bought his first camera with his birthday money. This was a 0.2 megapixels digital camera the size of a box of matches. This ‘digital’ camera had no screen on the back and a internal memory of 20 images. With that camera, he began capturing his friends and trying to recreate the images he saw in the skateboard magazines. After a few years, he got his first DSLR camera for his 15th birthday. By reading blogs and watching photography tutorials online his interest expended from skateboarding into a more portrait and commercial style of photography. By the age of 21, Jeroen teamed up with his friend and cinematographer Erik and started NEW DAY studio. This collaboration made for some large international clients to join forces and within the first few months, they were shooting for Heineken, Philips, Johnnie Walker, and other large companies. An extra kickoff for the studio in 2013 was Jeroen’s winning image category image at the Red Bull Illume photography contest gaining international attention to his work.