As a youth, Joris pulled apart his camera to examine its inner workings. Nowadays, he roams the globe capturing the latest street styles in the major fashion capitals.

Quitting his communications studies seven years ago, wiz-kid Joris Bruring has since become one of Amsterdam’s most promising fashion photographers. As we cruise the canals on his boat, Joris explains how his achievements as a photographer came often by accident.

Having first taken pictures at high school with a borrowed camera, Joris soon got himself work at several agencies after first moving to Amsterdam. With a little guts and a huge amount of ambition, he always found the right people to impress at the right places.

“I got a backstage pass for this Models at Work event and I was standing there looking eye to eye with Maartje van der Hoeven, the founder of the company, as she thought I was a professional photographer.”

“I got a backstage pass for this Models at Work event and I was standing there looking eye to eye with Maartje van der Hoeven, the founder of the company, as she thought I was a professional photographer,” Joris explains.

“I told her I didn’t have my big camera with me because the lens got humid after photographing a concert – something I made up very quickly to disguise the fact that I didn’t yet have a large professional camera. I ended up bringing some pictures to her office that week and I shot a few jobs. After that I not only began to photograph for them, but as time went on I also began to do their marketing concepts.”

Joris’ drive for success developed from a young age, when his family went through a difficult time and moved from a house into a flat, which he didn’t enjoy. “We barely had money in that time so new clothes were an exception. It really motivated me to stand on my own and make some good money doing what I wanted. That’s what I did the first years I lived in Amsterdam. The first time I made money I bought all kinds of shit, it was gone in an instant. Now I want to save and invest in bigger things.”

Time for friends and family was rare, but that changed when Joris realised there are more important things in life than money and work. “A year ago I was working so hard I noticed I didn’t have any real friends; so I invested more time getting to know people here. I didn’t have the feeling anyone would have my back if something went wrong. I sort of felt alone sometimes. That’s completely changed now as I put my friends first.”