"And why Sint Maarten, of all places?"

I would probably never have made it to there, had I not been in New York City during a momentous event in September 2001...

Before the longed for return home stood the cessation of all air traffic and a hotel bill that got longer with every stranded day. Thus, Norma's surprise offer to get us out of Manhattan came as a godsend. Norma is the daughter of longtime friends of my family but I had never met her in person before. And thus we spent the waiting period in her house in Long Island between a St. Bernhard dog and half-finished paintings.

Back in my native Eastern Westphalia, I received at short notice an offer of admission to study media production. Meanwhile, Norma decided to leave New York and make some investments in Sint Maarten.

Contact did not cease, and an invitation to the Caribbean also followed. First, though, three years and two backouts on my side passed. But being in need of a change of air at the end of my studies, an excuse had also been found now: my final dissertation. "Documentation about a Caribbean island" did sound rather promising!

Information about said island was hard to come by though. My research was limited to the fact that Sint Maarten was half Dutch and half French, and accordingly influenced by this. Ideas of postcard images provided the rest: sunshine galore, shady green palm trees, lonely white sandy beaches, cheeky little hurricanes, picturesque volcanic eruptions - lukewarm beer, no internet, no soccer results!

However, this meager information was just another reason for me to explore the island in detail, get to know its inhabitants and straighten up those stereotypes...

• 1980 Born in Herford, Germany
• 2001 - 2005 Studies of Media Production
  University of Applied Sciences, Lemgo, Germany
• 2004 - 2005 Freelancer in St. Maarten
• 2006 Employed in Hilversum, Netherlands

Please refer to my website for complete curriculum vitae and further work samples.