1,000 Words: Marc van der Aa

Name: Marc van der Aa

Hometown: Mexico City, Mexico

Occupation: Photographer

On assignment at events in 2016, including: Romania’s Untold Festival, Aly and Fila’s show in Egypt, Electric Forest, and EDC London.

Reminiscing on: Electric Forest. It’s a very mixed crowd, lots of old hippies—it’s much more diverse than your typical EDM festival. Plus, the lineup was awesome.

Looking forward to: Aly & Fila’s Future Sound of Egypt event in October. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event. Last year, I shot their show at the Pyramids in Egypt. This year, they’re playing at the Luxor Temple in Karnak, the second largest ancient religious site on earth.

At 16 I was: taking pictures of my friends in metal bands. I’m Dutch, so I was living in Holland at the time, and I had a small pocket camera I’d bring with me everywhere. Then, when I was 18, I got myself my first reflex camera and started taking even more pictures. I was studying hotel management, but I didn’t like it, so I quit to travel the world for two years.

Which led me to: Argentina, eventually. After traveling, I returned to school for journalism. But photography was still my passion, and I still wanted to travel more. When I finished my studies, I managed to get a scholarship to go abroad, and I ended up in Argentina. There I took classes in philosophy, history, and of course, photography. I loved the country so much, I stayed for 7.5 years doing photojournalism work.

And then: Armin van Buuren was in town, and the local production company needed a translator. I was hired by them because I spoke Dutch. I took photos of the event while I was there, and Armin’s team liked them so much that they asked me to come back and photograph A State of Trance in Argentina. Then, they asked me if I’d be interested in coming over to Europe to cover a few festivals. Nowadays, 90 percent of my work is event photography. Life takes a lot of interesting turns.

First experience with electronic music: Techno, minimal techno, and house at the clubs in Holland when I was in my 20s. Now, I live in Mexico City with my wife and my 4-month-old son, so I don’t go to many parties outside of work anymore. I do like to listen to Eric Prydz, though—I think he’s the best producer in the scene. And I’m really into DJ Eelke Kleijn right now.

My method is: Not too staged. I come from a photojournalism background, but at a certain point, I did a lot of fashion photography. Those are opposites, because in the second, everything is staged. In photojournalism, though, the moment you capture may never happen again. In my event photography, I tend to combine the two. Occasionally I’ll ask people to dance or do something specific, but I’d rather shoot unique moments than some cheesy smile.

Favorite shot: I shot one picture at EDC Las Vegas this year that I think is one of the best shots I’ve taken in 2016. Everything happened so unintentionally perfectly. I was at the mainstage, and I saw a couple dancing. The guy put the girl on his shoulders, and as soon as I took the photo, confetti shot into the crowd. There’s a lot going on in the picture, but none of it is overshadowing anything else.

My job surprises me when: I see the same people over and over again at festivals. I don’t mean the artists—I mean the fans. For example, in November I shot this totem at Dreamstate. It was a little alien on top of a UFO, and I talked with the guys who made it. Then I bumped into them again in the crowd at EDC Las Vegas, and crazily enough, they remembered me. It’s those kinds of connections I love.

Best festival Instagram tip: Come up with something original. Go to an interesting spot, or take a photo that’s not the typical shot. Everybody’s tired of the same old Instagrams.

“I was sitting on a beach in Mexico, when this elderly couple walked up to the water. The old man went in straight away to go snorkeling, but the woman, who had put her goggles on already, was still wearing her T-shirt. She tried to take off her T-shirt while wearing her goggles. It took her 45 minutes, and by the time she wanted to get into the water, her husband came out, and they walked off together. I had to laugh so hard.”

“Last year, I made a quick trip to Cuba and ended in this small town called Trinidad. After a heavy rainstorm, I went out for a walk and came across this old car, perfectly lit by a streetlight. It was one of those pictures I was looking forward to editing from the moment I took it.”

“With my Shakedown Team, we cover a lot of rallies around the world. This picture was my favorite during Dakar Rally 2015, taken in the salt desert of Uyuni in Southern Bolivia. I think it looks more like a still from Star Wars than from a race.”

“This abandoned chair on an empty beach, being tortured by the wind, comes from an art series that I made in this little town called Domburg. It is a small coastal town in the Netherlands which has the highest amount of hours of sun a year—an average of 100 hours more than the rest of the country.”

“Every now and then, one has to be creative to make an interesting picture. In this case, a pair of orange goggles and a passing girl with beautiful hair combined to [create] this picture.”

“Last year, I was invited by Egyptian DJs Aly & Fila to cover an event they had been working on for years to realize: a trance event at the bottom of the pyramids of Giza. It was the third time in modern history that permission was given to organize an event at this spot. This year, they will organize another event at the temple of Luxor, in the south of Egypt, one of the oldest archeological places of Egypt. Already thrilled for it.”

“Road to nowhere in the salt deserts of northern Argentina. It is high up in the Andes, heading for the border with Chile, and the skies are bluer than you have ever seen.”

“Different shades of blue in national park of Torres del Paine in Patagonian Chile.”

“My favorite shot of the first Holi Fest that was organized in Mexico a few years ago. Some kid decided to fill his mouth with colored powder and spit it out.”

“We love celebrating New Year’s Eve with a bunch of friends on a deserted Mexican beach and have been doing so for a few years. This one was a group shot on the 1st of January, 2016.”

“Sometimes you see a great shot, and the only thing you need is a volunteer crazy enough to follow your directions.”

“After having taken pictures of this tree on a small island on the southern tip of Argentina in all four seasons, I realized I had been in Argentina long enough, and it was time to move on to something new. I moved to Mexico three months later.”

“I get to travel the world a lot, but one place I miss is Patagonia and its sunsets.”

“Preying bird above a coastal highway in southern Peru during Rally Camino de Incas.”

“This photo kind of sums [up] what is my favorite town in the world: San Miguel de Allende. Colorful houses, cobblestone streets, laidback attitude. I plan to move here with my family within a few months.”

“My background as a photographer comes from photojournalism. I like to capture unique moments. I think this is one of them, during Holy Week in Mexico.”

“This picture from the Dakar Rally 2014 turned out to be the best picture of the race. I walked up the mountain in the province of San Juan, Argentina. Couldn’t go down anymore, so I decided to wait for the first participants to pass by and ended up with this crazy view.”

“Shot this picture a few days after EDC Mexico earlier this year. Love the colors, the world below, and the globe and sky above. Made a big print of this shot for my son’s room.”

“I love history and pre-Colombian cultures. Tikal in the jungle of Guatemala is a great place to get lost, and watching the sunrise over the canopy is a moment that you will never forget.”

“Teotihuacan, the City of Gods, close to Mexico City. These are the biggest pyramids on the American continent and date back almost 2,000 years. It is the third biggest pyramid in the world. You’ll feel your legs after climbing it.”

“Another hike that is worth every drop of sweat. Angels Landing in Zion, Utah.”

We put together a gallery of our favorite Insomniac shots by Marc that you can check out here.

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