Viviane Sassen's Kenyan Souvenirs

From her Amsterdam studio, the fashion and fine art photographer discusses lighting, poses and exotic road trips

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Danish author Baroness Karen Blixen opens her great 1937 memoir, Out Of Africa, with a succinct yet immersive description of her exotic surroundings. "I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills," she writes. "In the day-time you felt that you had got high up, near to the sun, but the early mornings and evenings were limpid and restful, and the nights were cold." Today, that same brilliant light is captured in the pictures of Dutch photographer Viviane Sassen.

Born in 1972, Sassen spent her early childhood in western Kenya before her family relocated to the Netherlands when she was aged five. At the root of Sassen's art are her memories of the African countryside, its climate and its people. "Those were my very first childhood years, when I first consciously experienced everything," she reminisces. "Sometimes I say it's like a blueprint, these formative years."

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