Buddha,
Or how you want to call your personal essence, is inside and around you if you learn to see space. For me Buddha is that what filles my body with warmth and peace.
Sharing a smile and giving respect. A moment filled with space that gives and receives energy. The energy is Buddha within myself.

One of the first words I learned in Thailand was 'Yim' (smile)
Arai tham hai khoen yim  (What may give you smile)
That was the question I asked myself and the people that learned me about the Buddhist culture.

I smile with tears in my eyes thinking about all the love and warmth I experienced. The Buddhist culture gave me time to truly breathe, stand still and See around me. I learned the difference between looking and seeing. You can just look around, but you can also truly see. Being in the moment with your mind, body and soul! To feel the moment and space we live in. It sounds simple but now I know that it is not.

Six months of  Buddhist culture.
For six months I traveled through Thailand and Laos  in 2008/2009. The first two months I
stayed in an Artist in Residency, Compeung in Doi Saket. I lived in my own house build by Ong. I got to know the village a little bit and learned more about the culture, the food and the lifestyle. After two months I traveled to Wat Thom Thong to meditate for two weeks. I was blown away by this intense way of being with yourself. In the months following the things I learned were started to find a place in my life. My way of taking pictures changed. I became calm and more in touch with my 'space'. For six weeks I traveled through Lao. The nature and the people,  filled my heart with energy. For the last weeks I went back to Chiang Mai and had an exhibition in Minimal Gallery. It showed my work from the months before.

Throughout my experience within the Buddhism I learned about the difference between looking around and truly seeing where you are. Bringing back the concentration and focus into the moment I live. In the temple I learned meditation technics that I used to capture my pictures. Seeing that I can live a moment only once and capture it now.