Traveler, Cultural Photographer, & Group Travel Organizer

Hey you! My name is Maxime and I am a 28 year young traveler, cultural photographer and expedition organizer. I have always been nostalgic to the past and I love to immerse myself in a place and educate myself about its culture, traditions and heritage. I also have a weakness for the Middle East and Arab World.

My mission is to share stories and knowledge about heritage (history, culture and traditions), the people I meet and the places I visit and take others along with me either through visual storytelling or by organizing group expeditions or retreats. With that, I additionally aim to create a positive impact and contribute to local communities and local environments wherever I or we go. To achieve this, all my travels and group travels are community-based or in collaboration with (travel) brands that are community-based, sustainable, social responsible or holistic and make change through active engagement with local communities and the environment.

My photos are available to purchase as prints. By purchasing these prints you are directly supporting local communities or charity projects since a percentage is always donated right back to the local community or the local environment where the photo was taken.

A little background information about Maxime:

I grew up traveling and living around Europe with my family or alone. I feel like everything that I have done in my life or have been interested in has always either been culture, discovery or travel related. At the age of 11, I moved to Vienna, Austria with my family where I lived until I was 19. I was always an observer and someone who is easily fascinated by people, cultures, history and places. It came as no surprise that I eventually picked up my mothers camera at the age of 14 and started capturing my daily life and experience of living abroad in Vienna, Austria at such a young age.

My endless curiosity, fascination and restlessness to explore have definitely been triggered by living abroad at such a young age and being immersed in a complete new culture with its own traditions. Besides that, going to an international school with children from all over the world, each with their own culture and traditions has probably led to my further interest to explore the world for a living. I enjoy learning about new places, its heritage and meeting people from different walks of life. A camera is the perfect tool for that.

After graduating from high school in Vienna, I moved to Milan, Italy at the age of seventeen and followed a photography Course for six months which was taught by fashion photographer Tom Bauer. This is where I learned to handle my camera manually and learned the basics of portrait and street photography. After Milan, I moved to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where I attended Hotelschool The Hague. As it was my dream to travel the world, I believed Hotelschool The Hague with its hospitality and tourism focus was the best education to accomplish that dream in the future.

Ever since I started Hotelschool The Hague at the age of nineteen, I worked as a event, festival and nightlife photographer in Amsterdam. I did this for seven years and this is where, when and how I learned everything about photography.

At the end of 2018, it was time to pursue my travel dreams. Not just explore and see beautiful places but truly learn about this world, its nature, its history, its cultures and traditions and capture it along the way. From working on a yacht as a photographer and stewardess for 6 months in 2019, I somehow ended up in the Red Sea of Saudi Arabia and since then I have become absolutely fascinated about this part of the world. While traveling and immersing myself in local cultures there, learning about their traditions and history and people's daily life, I strongly felt that I could do and wanted to do more than just photography. It is during these travels that I finally found clarity and a deeper purpose and realized I wanted to do something meaningful not just for myself but especially for other people and the people I meet along the way.

This is how I slowly started moving from just a photography business to a travel business with the idea of creating, organizing and leading group expeditions and retreats that dive deep into local cultures while creating a positive impact at the same time. With my expeditions and retreats I aim to show culture but also contribute in the best way possible, by collaborating with local communities, contributing to local projects and promoting better ways to travel while at the same time building a community of like-minded travelers who equally promote a more sustainable and ethical approach towards travel. Please head over to the next slide to read more about the expeditions.

Insta @with.maxime

With Maxime: Expeditions and Retreats

Travel with me! Join my expeditions to Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Italy or the Netherlands

With my expeditions and retreats I aim to show culture but also contribute in the best way possible, by collaborating with local communities, contributing to local projects and promoting better ways to travel while at the same time building a community of like-minded travelers who equally promote sustainable and ethical travel.

EXPEDITIONS MOROCCO AND SAUDI ARABIA
I organize expeditions in Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Why these countries? After working in Saudi Arabia last year, I immediately fell in love with the Saudi and Middle Eastern culture. It felt as I finally found what I had always been looking for, without knowing I was looking for it; the people, the history, the culture, the hospitality and most of all the country and its landscapes. As many other places in the Middle East, it is a mysterious region with yet so much to discover, uncover and learn from. It is also a region and culture that is highly underestimated and misjudged in the West.

After all the positive responses I received from my trip to Saudi-Arabia and the many people telling me they would love to travel there, I knew exactly what I had to do. Start organizing group expeditions abroad to Saudi-Arabia. Afterwards, I additionally traveled to Morocco and felt a very similar mission.

With my expeditions I take you on an adventure while being fully immersed in a truly authentic, cultural and adventurous experience with locals.

Why with locals? I believe that the best way to travel, truly experience and learn about a place is with locals. They know all the hidden gems, they know all the local stories and places. Additionally, by involving locals and collaborating with locals we are creating job opportunities and thus giving back to local communities and tribed so they can continue living the way they live. By choosing this expedition we can do just that: give back.

PHOTOGRAPHY EXPEDITION MOROCCO - We Shoot for Good

We Shoot for Good is a photography expedition in Morocco that creates a positive impact. A truly local, authentic and cultural experience. A percentage of each expedition is directly given to the local communities we visit. Additionally, prints from each photographer are sold through our website, creating an income stream for photographers but also donating a percentage back to the local communities.

As a photographer myself, I know that it can be a lonely profession. When I think back to when I started out, a place with like-minded people I could learn from would have helped. Instead, I spend a lot of time figuring everything out by myself. I know there are many great online photography communities that you can turn to for advice, but I also noticed that offline photography communities and experiences are lacking. With the realization that we also spend much of our daily life in the online world, when in fact we all just really want to get out there into the world, I started thinking of ways to turn the online into an offline experience.

Hence, I came with the idea to start organizing photography expeditions abroad for photographers and aspiring photographers. A group expedition with like-minded photographers in which you build a portfolio and learn about photography from industry experts. With this type of expedition, I want to take you on an adventure. This is for photographers who want to establish their documentary, travel, and storytelling skills while being fully immersed in a truly authentic, cultural and adventurous experience with locals in Morocco.

Why Morocco? Morrocco has one of the most diverse landscapes I have ever seen and has a very authentic culture. One literally drives into a new landscape every hour, which is great for photography

I take you to the actual field because I always believed in a "learning by doing and learning with and doing" mentality. The complete itinerary is organized and taken care off to be sure that you can fully focus on your photography while being with other photographers who are all eager to learn, eager for adventure and discovery. You will see fantastic destinations and do all that you love; capturing cultures, places, people and learning as you go. With this expedition, I want to make sure you go home with a great portfolio, a changed perspective of the Arab World, life-long connections, but also with tips & steps that you can implement once you return back home in order to build a thriving photography business.

CULTURAL EXPEDITION SAUDI ARABIA
coming soon!

RUB AL KHALI DESERT EXPEDITION
coming soon!

CULTURAL RETREAT IN LE MARCHE ITALY
coming soon!

WEEKEND RETREAT THE NETHERLANDS
coming soon!

All expeditions and retreats are organized in collaboration with local businesses and communities and the photography expeditions are organized under @weshootforgood.

Insta @weshootforgood

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