Tag Archives: Documentary

1st Prize Microscopy Today Micrograph Awards competition 2024

I am very happy that my photo won the 1st prize in the 2024 Microscopy Today Micrograph Awards competition. Another picture ended as Finalist.

The premise of the micrograph competition is that scientific images can be interesting and have significant visual impact. This year, submissions came from 21 countries and 17 US states.

Open Category 1st Prize.
Colonial diatoms. Phytoplankton Licmophora flabellata are colonial diatoms. Phytoplankton produces around 50% of all oxygen on earth by photosynthesis, and plankton play an essential role in the global carbon cycle (light microscopy). Image by Jan van IJken, Leiden, Netherlands.

Open Category, Finalist
Water flea Chydorus sphaericus carrying an egg. Light microscopy. Image by Jan van IJken, Leiden, Netherlands

https://academic.oup.com/mt/article/32/5/14/7774337



Species List Planktonium

Species List Planktonium (both full and short version)

full 15 min version:

00:14 Coscinodiscus – Diatoms

00:22 Coscinodiscus – Diatoms

00:30 Coscinodiscus – Diatoms

00:38 Coscinodiscus – Diatom

00:46 Actinosphaerium (heliozoan)

01:03 Bacillaria Paxillifer – Diatoms

01:18 Bacillaria Paxillifer – Diatoms

01:44 Heliozoea

01:59 Medusa stage of Obelia

02:15 Testate amoeba

02:28 Developing egg of unknown species

02:42 Noctiluca scintillans (sea sparkle)

02:55 Noctiluca scintillans (sea sparkle)

03:07 Testate amoeba

03:21 Heliozoean releasing a ciliate

03:49 Dinoflagellates

04:09 Volvox

04:28 Euglena

04:44 Micrasterias (desmid)

04:45 Tube dwelling diatoms

05:05 Tube dwelling diatoms

05:18 Tube dwelling diatoms

05:34 Dinoflagellates

05:48 Colonial Peritrich – Ciliates

06:00 Colonial Peritrich – Ciliates

06:11 Conochilus – Colonial rotifers

06:19 Conochilus – Colonial rotifers

06:28 Rotifers

06:41 Asplanchna – Rotifers

06:52 Rotifer

07:00 Rotifers

07:12 Brachionus – Rotifers

07:25 Kellicottia – Rotifers

07:36 Echinoderm larva

07:50 Echinoderm larva

08:08 Ciliates

08:22 Ciliate

08:31 Nassula – Ciliate

08:49 Lithodesmium intricatum (diatom)

09:02 Ditylum brightwelli (diatom)

09:11 Larva of a tube-dwelling worm

09:20 Larva of a tube-dwelling worm

09:27 Eleutheria dichotoma (hydroid)

09:40 Hydra

09:59 Chaoborus (phantom midge larva)

10:06 Chaoborus (phantom midge larva)

10:12 Polyphemus pediculus – Water flea (giving birth)

10:56 Cyclops (copepod with diatoms attached)

11:12 Daphnia pulex – Water flea carrying eggs

11:21 Diaphanosoma – water flea carrying embryos

11:27 Diaphanosoma – water flea carrying embryos

11:36 Ilyocryptus (water flea)

11:46 Sea star larva

11:56 Tunica larva (Oikopleuridae)

12:11 Crab larva

12:19 Veliger larva

12:26 Planktonic trochophore stage of the larva of a polychaete worm

12:42 Mnemiopsis leidyi (comb jelly)

13:06 Radiolaria

13:19 Stentor amethystinus

13:37 Stentor amethystinus

Planktonium – 3 min version:

00:01 Coscinodiscus – Diatoms

00:08 Coscinodiscus – Diatoms

00:16 Coscinodiscus – Diatom

00:24 Bacillaria Paxillifer – Diatoms

00:39 Heliozoean

00:56 Nassula – Ciliate

01:14 Dinoflagellates

01:28 Larva of a tube-dwelling worm

01:43 Eleutheria dichotoma (hydroid)

01:57 Diaphanosoma brachyurum – water flea carrying embryos

02:04 Diaphanosoma brachyurum – water flea carrying embryos

02:12 Echinoderm larva

02:24 Veliger larva

02:32 Planktonic trochophore stage of the larva of a polychaete worm

Limited Edition Collectors Box Planktonium – SOLD OUT

To celebrate the release of my film Planktonium, I decided to produce a Limited Edition Collectors Box (35 copies only!) of the project.

This numbered (35/35) Box is containing:

3 signed and numbered inkjetprints on Hahnemühle Photo Rag baryta (315 gsm) A4 size paper, printed by Hans Bol
Full version of the short film Planktonium (15:23) + extra footage (02:00) in 4K and HD format on USB stick
An essay on plankton by Jelle Reumer, text design by Karin van der Meer
Handmade Box by Liesbeth Visser, including an extra photo on the front

The price is € 295,00 including 9% VAT, excluding cost of shipment.

Produced with generous financial support of Nederlands Filmfonds, Gemeente Leiden and Stichting Oog op de Natuur

Planktonium

Stream or download Planktonium (full version) on Vimeo On Demand

Planktonium is a short film about the unseen world of living microscopic plankton. It is a voyage into a secret universe, inhabited by alien-like creatures. These stunningly beautiful, very diverse and numerous organisms are unknown to most of us because they are invisible to the naked eye. However, they are wandering beneath the surface of all waters around us and they are of vital importance for all life on earth.

Jan van IJken filmed the plankton through his microscopes, revealing the beauty and delicate structures of the minute organisms in the finest detail. The film is without any voice-over or explanation.

Renowned Norwegian artist Jana Winderen made a sound composition for the film. She is recording audio environments and creatures which are hard for humans to access, both physically and aurally – deep under water, inside ice or in frequency ranges inaudible to the human ear.

Phytoplankton (small plant-like cells) are producing half of all oxygen on earth by photosynthesis, like plants and trees do on land. Zooplankton (animal-like critters) are eating the phytoplankton, and are on the menu of larger animals in the water. So plankton is forming the base of the food chain of aquatic life. Plankton are also playing an important part in the global carbon cycle. The plankton are threatened by climate change, global warming and acidification of the oceans.

Filmed, directed and produced by Jan van IJken
Sound composition by Jana Winderen
Edited by Jan van IJken and Metje Postma

Produced with generous financial support of Gemeente Leiden, Stichting Oog op de Natuur and The Netherlands Film Fund.

Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden the Netherlands acquired one copy of the film for the museum collection.
Planktonium has been part of the Leiden European City of Science program in 2022.

2021, 4K, color, 15:23 min

Screenings and Awards

Director Statement

Publications

Planktonium in the Auditorium of Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden, NL (2022)

Waterland

‘Streekfonds Waterland’ commissioned me to produce several short films about the stunning beauty of this natural area, just north of Amsterdam. Here are some examples of the results (unfortunately no English subtitles):

https://vimeo.com/190281354

Planktonium photobook

ENGLISH EDITION BY TERRA LANNOO – INTERNATIONAL ORDERS
ENGLISH EDITION BY TERRA LANNOO – DUTCH ORDERS
GERMAN EDITION
BY TECKLENBORG VERLAG

Planktonium is a short film and photo project by Jan van IJken about the unseen world of living microscopic plankton. It is a voyage into a secret universe, inhabited by alien-like creatures. These stunningly beautiful, very diverse and numerous organisms are unknown to most of us because they are invisible to the naked eye. However, they are wandering beneath the surface of all waters around us and they are of vital importance for all life on earth.

Jan van IJken photographed the plankton through his microscopes, revealing the beauty and delicate structures of the minute organisms in the finest detail.

Phytoplankton (small plant-like cells) are producing half of all oxygen on earth by photosynthesis, like plants and trees do on land. Zooplankton (animal-like critters) are eating the phytoplankton, and are on the menu of larger animals in the water. So plankton is forming the base of the food chain of aquatic life. Plankton are also playing an important part in the global carbon cycle. The plankton are threatened by climate change, global warming and acidification of the oceans.

Produced with generous financial support of Gemeente Leiden and Stichting Oog op de Natuur.

Preview of some selected photos:

The art of flying

Short film about “murmurations”: the mysterious flights of the Common Starling. It is still unknown how the thousands of birds are able to fly in such dense swarms without colliding. Every night the starlings gather at dusk to perform their stunning air show.

Because of the relatively warm winter of 2014/2015, the starlings stayed in the Netherlands instead of migrating southwards. This gave filmmaker Jan van IJken the opportunity to film one of the most spectacular and amazing natural phenomena on earth.

2015, HD Video, black&white, 06:52

The film has been screened at more than 50 international film festivals, art galleries, museums, etc. It was awarded “Best art film” at Pärnu Int. Documentary Film Festival, Estonia. The short 2 min version of the film was published online by National Geographic’s Short Film Showcase and was selected as a Vimeo Staff Pick.

List of screenings & awards THE ART OF FLYING

Link to the photoseries The art of flying:
https://www.janvanijken.com/the-art-of-flying/

Becoming

BECOMING is a short film about the miraculous genesis of animal life. In great microscopic detail, we see the ‘making of’ a salamander in its transparant egg from fertilization to hatching.

The first stages of embryonic development are roughly the same for all animals, including humans. In the film, we can observe a universal process which normally is invisible: the very beginning of an animal’s life. A single cell is transformed into a complete, complex living organism with a beating heart and running bloodstream.

The salamander embryo (an Ichthyosaura Alpestris) was followed very closely in a combination of timelapse and film. All stages of embryogenesis can be seen in this film: cleavage, gastrulation, neurulation and organogenesis. Time was condensed from about 3 weeks to 6 minutes.

2018, HD video, color, 06:15

Becoming has been screened at more than 25 international film festivals and received  the Award for best short documentary at the Innsbruck nature film festival 2018 and the Vision Science Award at Imagine Science Abu Dhabi 2019.

In 2019 the film went ‘viral’ on internet and has been watched by a few million people. It was published on the website of National Geographic, Aeon, Colossal, Live Science, IFLScience and numerous others. A Vimeo Staff Pick of the month was awarded to the film and the Dutch TV show De Wereld Draait Door screened the film, including an interview.

LIST OF SCREENINGS AND AWARDS BECOMING

Acknowledgements; Many thanks to:
Ben Geutskens for sharing his knowledge about the biology and life cycles of salamanders: http://www.semperinmotus.nl/
My friends at the Dutch microscopy club NGVM: http://www.ngvm.nl 
Alex Kenter salamander breeder with endless patience in providing eggs.
Huibert Boon for the audimix and foley http://www.boonbooy.nl/

Jan van IJken

Jan van IJken is a filmmaker and photographer from the Netherlands, working at the interface of art and science.
His work is about the secrets of nature, microscopy, embryology and human-animal relationships.

The art of flying

Photoseries about “murmurations”: the mysterious flights of the Common Starling. It is still unknown how the thousands of birds are able to fly in such dense swarms without colliding. Every night the starlings gather at dusk to perform their stunning air show.

Because of the relatively warm winter of 2014/2015, the starlings stayed in the Netherlands instead of migrating southwards. This gave filmmaker Jan van IJken the opportunity to film one of the most spectacular and amazing natural phenomena on earth.

Nevermore

Film about the fast and almost instinctive creative process of action painting by dribbling, splashing, scratching and smearing paint on a huge canvas. The work is based on the poem ‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allan Poe: an almost abstract chaos of words and sounds.

Jan van IJken filmed Dutch artist Theo Zwinderman painting ‘The Raven’ and edited the film on the rhythm of a reading of the poem by George Snow.

2013, HD Video, 03:37 min

Screenings & Awards:

2015 ArtMuc, München, Germany
2013 Jihlava International Documentary Film Festial, Czech Republic
2013 Micro Film Festival at What the Festival, USA
2013 Pärnu International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival, Estonia
2013 Huesca International Film Festival, Spain: Documentary Short Film Contest (World Premiere)

Concert Photography

Jan van IJken photographed numerous live-popconcerts from 1987 – 1994. This period marks the beginning of his career as a photographer. The photos were published in ‘Amersfoortse Courant’, ‘Primeur’ and ‘Oor’.

 

Semana Santa in Sevilla

This series was photographed in the ‘Semana Santa’: the Holy Week before Easter in Sevilla, Spain in 1995.

Thousands of pilgrims walk for hours and hours in processions for penetention in commemoration of the passion of Jesus Christ. Jan wanted to capture the mystical, medieval atmosphere.

The series was exhibited in the Elleboogkerk, Amersfoort and Amsterdam Centre for Photography in 1996.

Precious Animals

Precious Animals (2005)  is a photo-project about the relationship between animals and humans, focusing on animals as manufactured consumer products on the one hand, with efficiency playing the leading role, and these very consumers and their habit of pampering their own pets and other cuddly two and four-legged creatures, on the other hand.

Jan van IJken has searched for an answer to the questions ‘What is an animal’s life worth in the Netherlands?’ and ‘Why do we have animal ambulances and canine psychologists, and at the same time pen up millions of chickens with clipped beaks in a coop?’ The factory farming industry uses animals to manufacture an edible product, but animals are also used in genetic and other scientific research. However, people sometimes display a bizarre affection for their own pets or for animals in general. This results in everything from shows with ‘dolled up’ animals to workshops on cow cuddling and pet cemeteries.

The photographer’s aim was not to pass judgement, but to incite questions about how we deal with animals in the Netherlands.

Precious Animals was commissioned by the Rijksmuseum and NRC Handelsblad as part of their series ‘Document Nederland’. The photos were exhibited in photo museum Huis Marseille, Amsterdam from Nov 2005 – Feb 2006, along with a special supplement of NRC Handelsblad and the publication of the photobook Dierbaar.

The series was published in many international newspapers and magazines (e.g. De Morgen, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, El Mundo Magazine, Eight, Mother Jones Magazine and Days Japan) and received a Humanity Photo Award, an International Photography Award and was selected for American Photography.

New Neighbours

Photo-project about daily life in five Eastern European and five Dutch municipalities. Van IJken has used the twinning of these municipalities as a starting point from which to compare everyday life in Eastern and Western Europe. People are the focus of this series of photos. The individuals who inhabit these images have been captured in all kinds of everyday situations.

Making use of the twinning of these towns and cities enabled the photographer to take advantage of existing contacts and networks. But the most fascinating aspect of this approach is undoubtedly the comparison it generates between how people in Eastern and Western Europe live on the eve of the enlargement of the European Union.

The reader is confronted with the question of whether the differences are really as great as is often assumed.

The photographs were taken between May 2003 and May 2004 in the following ten municipalities:

Amersfoort (The Netherlands) – Liberec (Czech Republic)

Zoetermeer (The Netherlands) – Nitra (Slovakia)

The Hague (The Netherlands) – Warsaw (Poland)

Wageningen (The Netherlands) – Gödölö (Hungary)

Ooststellingwerf (The Netherlands) – Ergli (Latvia).

The series was published in the photobook ‘New Neighbours’ (2004) and was exhibited in the Atrium, The Hague, The Netherlands

Facing Animals winner ‘Project of the Month’ on Reelisor.com

Facing Animals has been chosen as ‘Project of the Month’ on Reelisor.com, an online cooperation platform for the professional European documentary world.

Charlie Philips, jury member and Marketplace Director of Sheffield Doc/fest:

We’re delighted to announce the winner of the first ever Project of The Month on reelisor. The winner is Jan Van Ijken with “Facing Animals” – you can see the project here

It’s a fascinating project with a special pitch video. An investigation into how animals see the world, it’s understated and takes the unusual tactic of literally giving us an animal’s eye view – a bit like Nicolas Philibert’s Nenette did, and this doc looks like it’ll share the non-human intensity of that one, but in Facing Animals, the tables are turned. We’re not observing the non-human animals, we are them! We’re in the chicken coop, we’re in the farmyard, we’re looking at humanity.

It’s not simply looking like a great project because of this device, it’s also the mundanity of the scenes that we’ll get – the row of indifferent men watching, to mirror the general indifference/attitude of functionality to anything not human. in the small amount of info Jan is able to give us in his reelisor project area, you get an excellent sense of the reason this doc needs to exist and of the (enjoyably ambiguous) stance of the filmmaker.

So well done Jan! Jan was picked from a shortlist of 10 entries, whittled down from 51 new projects added on reelisor in August and half of September (so really it was 6 weeks this time, not a month). The standard was very high.

http://www.reelisor.com/p/facing_animals

Facing Animals

Facing Animals (29 min) is a documentary film about the complex and often bizarre relationship between man and animal.

Why do we look away from millions of animals in industrial farms while pampering and humanizing others? In the film Facing Animals pigs, chickens, cows and dogs are the protagonists, humans are the antagonist.

We see the world from the perspective of the animals: chicks are thrown onto a conveyor belt, a lady is cuddling a cow in a meadow, piglets are screaming while their tails are cut off, dogs are blessed in a church.

The stunning, often confronting, visuals take the viewer on a roller coaster of emotions. It becomes clear how complex and often bizarre the relationship between man and animal is.

2012, HD Video, color, 29:31

Facing Animals was screened at more than 15 international film festivals and received the Grand Prix for short films at Split Film Festival, Croatia.

List of screenings and awards FACING ANIMALS

PHOTOGRAPHY