Intrepid Dutch photographjournalist Jereon Swolfs is a year and a half into his mammoth project to photograph streetlife in every capital city of every country on Earth over a five year period. Through capturing images that typify life in each of the 200 cities he will visit across the globe, thirty-six-year-old Swolfs aims to “create a portrait of humanity at the beginning of the 21st century.”

Swolfs, who was born in The Hague, has now almost photographed every country on the continent of Asia. A selection of this Asia chapter of his “Streets of the World” project  will be on display in The Hague on the banks of the Hofvijver from 6-20 June. Catherine Swindles caught up with him this week to find out about "Streets of the World."

How did you get the idea for Streets of the World?
I have told this story quite a few times in Dutch, now it’s time to tell it in English. One night I was really drunk and I tripped and fell on the pavement. I lay there kind of semi-concious and I became very moved and impressed by the pavement itself. I lay there thinking it was amazing how many feet were put down on this surface and thought 'where are those feet going?' You can tell so much about human life and the way we live from an image of the street and it's people. I thought collecting an image of a street in each country of the world would be really interesting.                       Jereon Swolfs portrait © Saskia Peverelli

And how long were you lying on the pavement?!
About half an hour I think.  I was still thinking about the image and the idea when I woke up the next morning, so I knew it must be a good idea.

How did you get started with the project?
It wasn’t until 2006, five years after I had the initial idea, that I dared to actually do something about it. Obviously it’s quite expensive to travel to every country and dangerous too. For a long time, three years, I tried to get funding from government and private organisations however they only have small budgets and this is a big project. I had no success with big corporations who saw it as a kind of risky investment. Things were starting to look grim but then I met a private investor in 2009 who happened to be a big art fan. He said to me ‘if you can pull this off we will have something amazing.’ He’s in it for the long stretch.

How do you pick the street that is the best representation of that country?
I spend time researching each country, look into it’s history and it’s political and religious situation. I try to get a clear image of what’s happening in that country and then incorporate as many elements of that into the image. One photo won’t tell the whole story of a country; you can’t tell the whole story of a single person in one photo. It is a moment in time of each place. From a photography point of view I also have to consider the light, the time of day, the people and whether it’s too crowded or too quiet. That’s why each city takes me about five days to get the right image.

  Funafuti, Tuvalu © Jeroen Swolfs

You’ve been traveling for the past year or so and still have four years to go. Do you get tired of traveling?
I come back to Holland every now and then. After three or four months of travel you can get a bit weary. I come back home (to Amsterdam) three or four times per year so I can look at each new city fresh. But I still love the traveling and that’s why I have also written a book about it. It’s about the adventure, the romance, some of the hardships. It’s in Dutch but we hope to get it translated into English soon.

Any difficulties?
I have not been able to get into some countries because of visa difficulties. I still have four years to go on this project so we will see what happens. I haven’t been to Iraq, Afghanistan or Iran. I did get into North Korea and the picture from there has turned out to be one of the best images. It will feature in the Hague exhibition.

What will the exhibition in The Hague look like?
The Hague exhibition is a selection of twenty of the images from Asia. Each big print is two-and-a-half metres wide and is mounted onto poles to be set up along the Lange Vijverberg. It’s a selection of twenty, all very different images, showing the contrasts and similarities of life in each city.

  Wellington, New Zealand © Jeroen Swolfs

What street will feature in your photo to represent The Netherlands?
Holland will be the last country I photograph because it’s home. I have an idea of a street but it will probably change. I want to capture the liberal and multicultural aspects of our society in that image.

Where are you off to next?
The Streets of the World exhibition in The Hague (6-20 June) and then I’m off to Canada to continue the project.

Take a stroll along the Hofvijver to check out "Streets of the World - Asia" from Monday 6 June. For more information and to follow Jeroen Swolf's world journey see www.streetsoftheworld.com.

When: 6-20 June, 2011
Where: Lange Vijverberg (on the banks of the Hofvijver), The Hague

Cost: Free

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