Being a shy person poses challenges in everyday life and adopting personae to feel comfortable in interaction with people is crucial. It's a bit strange perhaps to choose professions that put you right in front of groups of people, where you have no chance of blending into the background, but, I feel very comfortable in my roles as a teacher and a fashion model; I find it delightfully stimulating and a well balancing contrast to my quiet time after work hours.

As a photographer I started out using the skill you often develop very well as a shy person, quiet observation. I focused on lines and shapes, mainly architecture and abstract, but gradually moved onto street photography - from a distance. With a growing comfort in the streets it felt a natural progression to further challenge myself, step out of my comfort zone also in this arena, and so instead of merely observing a scene I started immersing myself in the scenes and take candid portraits.