I’m a fan of the work of Anton for a long, long time. But this is not about that. I remember of getting his email address from his brother, because I wanted to invite him to the Texelse Boys project. A bit later, we met because of the annual report for TNT when I was working at Mattmo. Anton is the photographer for that project. We had some intense sessions to make his work look great in print, making sure we maintained to have all the richness of his work in print, digitized from prints to digital to paper again. And while a bunch of people were working on that, he was sleeping on the floor. I remember we had a really fun drive, from the lithographer to Amsterdam, where he told about his plans for a movie. That it would be awkward, because it would involve a lot of people and he is used to work with just his assistant. And he told some great jokes. It was nice to find out that someone I admired for his work, was also a genuine great guy. The annual report turned out great, prize winning great.

Fast forward. When I worked at Fabrique, we won the competition for the TNT annual report. Great. With Anton again. And also that annual report turned out great, we won even more prizes with it. But, this is not about that.

Last year, my brother had a stroke. And my brother is also a big fan of Anton’s work, as a real music fanatic and fan of a lot of bands and artist Anton took photo’s of. Anyway, my brother was not doing too well and it was quite uncertain how he would turn out. Having a stroke when you are 35 is in itself not a good thing. When I was visiting him in the hospital, he had a good day for a change but meanwhile he was deeply somber. So I thought: why not call Anton and ask him to say something. And when I was about to call, my brother dozed off again. Hm. So I sent Anton a sms, explaining the situation, and if he could call me back, let the phone ring and then leave a message on my voicemail so I could play that, when my brother woke up again. Stupid idea. But a few minutes later, my phone rang. Anton. And even though I was temped to pick up, but I didn’t. Then, silence. And a few minutes later, my phone beeped. A message from Anton, for my brother. What a hero. I was truly stunned by the fact that he actually did it. So great.

When my brother woke up, I played the message to his ear. The message from Anton was beautiful. He was in San Francisco. He described the day he was experiencing, the things he was seeing. Which was a beautiful sunny autumn day. And that he, with that picture that he painted with words, could give some of that to my brother and hoped that everything would turn out fine. That was so great. And intense. A true boost of energy, tears and a happy brother with even a vague asymmetrical smile on his face. Thanks Anton.