As a copywriter and photographer, I’ve developed a preference for relatively minor subjects that conceal bigger stories. Whether it concerns someone who has already bought and installed their coffin at home, or a man called Peter who wants to be known as Jack, or women who choose to wear a niqab: all of these choices say something about our human side.

They lift the veil on our defining moments. About how we choose to shape our lives, and the world around us. The long and short-term projects I design are intended to explore these and other subjects. My style is fluid; I choose the form that I think is best suited to the subject, without prejudice or assumptions and with a dash of humour if at all possible.

CV
After studying Dutch Language and Literature at Leiden University in the 1990s, she embarked on a course at the University of Applied Photography in Amsterdam, where she graduated with distinction in 2013.

In early 2016, Aukema won a Silver Camera award in the portraits category (award in Dutch photojournalism), was nominated for the SO2015 Awards (for creative photography), selected for the New Dutch Photography Talent 2017 and won the International Photo Festival Leiden.