"Mathilde" is a brand new book by Lisette de Zoete and it is about "The Muse, The Myth, and the Mystery" that was Mathilde Willink, a force to be reckoned with, highly intelligent, an Icon.
Mathilde was one of kind. There will never be another Mathilde.
The book presentation took place on Saturday the 21st of January 2017 at Leideplein #33 and the name of the location is "Tesselschade-Arbeit Adelt" which was a perfect fit because after Mathilde arrived in Amsterdam so many years ago she rented a room there.
At the presentation there were cakes with photo's on them of Mathilde (wearing Fong-Leng), and sweets, just like Mathilde liked it, super sweet and delicious!
Among the attendants were friends and family of Lisette, artists like Adrian Stahlecker and Maurice Heerdink who painted beautiful portraits of Mathilde, Rozetta Zeegers was there - who filmed and photographed a lot back in the days and Rozetta also told wonderful stories about Mathilde and how she experienced her.
Lieneke Koornstra de Doelder, who is a relative of Mathilde (far removed) was there and she helped Lisette with the book, she gave a wonderful speech, and there was a photographer who once photographed Mathilde with a leopard, and Mathilde's sister was also attending, which was amazing and one of Mathilde's awesome colleagues from the time when she was working as a stewardess.
Lisette was introduced by the managing director of publishers "Lecturis" and she had a wonderful story to tell and there was a round of applause for her partner Lorette for enduring so much, and also a very appropriate round of applause for the muse herself : Mathilde.
I met Lisette when she just started with researching for the book, and as the assistant for Fong-Leng I arranged for Lisette and Fong-Leng to have a meeting, after sending Lisette an invite for Fong-Leng's exhibition "Fong-Leng Fashion & Art" at the Amsterdam Museum in Amsterdam.
Since we emailed a lot (because Fong-Leng was on a business trip and I managed her email) we became friends and stayed in touch.
I didn't know if there would be a photographer to photograph this special occasion for Lisette so I took my camera with me and as soon as I arrived I started photographing.
"Mathilde" is a wonderful book with gorgeous photographs and stories in it you can order it via Bol.com
If you are interested in reading the book, Rozetta (Zeegers) gave the suggestion to first watch "Mathilde Willink Superpoes" on youtube (which can be seen below).
I had a wonderful experience photographing this evening, it was extraordinary.
