Spotlight: Teake Zuidema, Creative Photographer

Teake Zuidema has worked on visual stories for newspapers, magazines, and websites for over 25 years. He finds inspiration in visiting new places and cultures. Now, he enjoys exploring and documenting the Georgia coast.

Why photography? How did you get started?

Everybody in my family was a writer, a poet or a journalist. I had the writing gene too, but I was determined to prove myself in something different and that became photography. I guess I just wanted to stand out in my family.

When was the first time that you remember realizing that you are a creative person? 

I always knew I could express myself creatively in writing, and so I became a journalist. It took much and much longer to learn to be a creative photographer. It was only after 20 or 25 years that I felt I became really creative as a photographer.

Most photography is not art, there’s usually no intention to express an idea or emotion. They are made as a memory or to please a particular audience. There are a lot of conventional ideas about what a “good photo” should look like in order to please the observer. You become creative when you let go of those ideas and conventions.

Where do you find your inspiration? 

I used to find inspiration in travel, seeing new places and meeting new people. This is especially great for photography.

In new places you see new colors, new shapes and new meaning. You begin to see again as a child does. I worked both as a writer and as a photographer for travel magazines and web sites.

In 2021 I moved to the coast of Georgia and was immediately inspired by the coastal landscapes. It was all so new to me. I love the marshes, the coastal forests, the beaches and the sea.

The stories I saw in the landscape are now the main inspiration for my photography.

Do you feel that you chose your “passion,” or did it choose you?  

Hard to answer this question. You need to have a certain personality to enjoy travel photography and landscape photography.

For travel photography you must absolutely be curious about distant worlds and cultures that are different from your own.

For landscape photography you need to be very patient and persistent and always willing to learn new things and get better.

Without passion that doesn’t work. That passion, in my case, was something that grew within me over the years.

Describe your creative space.

My creative space is mostly the landscape itself.

I have a  list of places along the coast where I can go to photograph. For each location I write down information. Is the light better in the morning or in the evening? Is the scenery more interesting in spring or in the fall.? Should I be there at a low tide or at high tide? What equipment should I bring for this particular spot? What is the position of the sun at a particular spot during different periods of the year? And also: do I have to wear my boots to plunge in the water for a good perspective?

Do you use a sketchbook, journal, or technology to plan or keep track of ideas?

I take a lot of photos. Most of them just have the function of being sketches of a location I want to return too. Of every 500 or so photos I shoot, I select one to work on in the software, do color corrections and sometimes reframe the image.

When beginning a project, do you pre-plan your entire endeavor or do you simply follow where your inspiration takes you? 

I just start somewhere at a location I like, and then come back a few times, and then the photos that I have give me ideas to go to other places and take other photos.

I’m working on an exhibition now for the summer of 2025, and that means planning and more planning, deliberately looking for shots that are different from what I already have.

How often do you start a new project? Do you work actively on more than one project at a time?

Yes, I prefer to do more things at the same time. Currently, I’m working on photos of the Georgia coast and on a story about the Gullah-Geechee community and culture. Apart from that, I make trips and do smaller assignments.

Can you tell us about the inspiration and process of one of your projects? How does a project come to life? 

Projects really come from the gut. I just see something that strikes me as beautiful or odd or exceptional, and I’m off.

Which part of managing and executing a  project is your favorite? Which part is a challenge for you? 

Well, my favorite thing is just being out in the landscape or at an event and shoot.

Being out in the landscape, I just forget about whatever else is going on in the world and sort of become one with the environment.

The hardest part is being a judge of my own work. Is this really a good shot, or is it just average? That is hard. Sometimes I love a photo, and then a week later I see it again and I think mwaaah, not so great.

I do need feedback from people with an eye for photography to create a good story or exhibition.

Is there an overarching theme that connects all of your work? 

Yes, in my landscape photography I tend to fixate on struggle, decay, survival, dying and beauty. I do want to tell a story about the landscape, so beauty in itself is really a bit boring. It needs drama, just like in novels and movies.

What do you do to keep yourself motivated and interested in your work? 

I try to read a lot about the places and people I photograph. Getting to know, for example, the history of the Georgia Coast is very important for me, It makes me see the coastal landscape in a different perspective.

I also read a lot of environmental articles and books. Reading about, for example, sea level rise, is essential about understanding what you see in the marshes and the coastal forests.

Apart from that, I often like just to look at things and experience it as something great and moving. The pure joy of looking and then trying to recreate what I see in my photos.

What traits, if any, do you think that creative people have as compared to people who are not creative? 

Being creative means, among other things, not having to justify what you’re doing. Just follow a feeling. Follow a hunch. Even if that hunch doesn’t make sense to anybody else in the world.

Where can people see your work? My website: www.teakezuidema.com, my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/teake.zuidema. In August/September I’ll have an exhibition of my landscape project at Arts Southeast in Savannah. 2301 Bull StreetSavannah, GA, 31401

Interview posted January 2025