Led by curiosity to discover if the Hollywood movies of my youth were true, by the age of twenty I’d been a hunter, a cowboy and a soldier. None of these real-life experiences were remotely like in the movies. Was nothing real which came out of Hollywood?

At twenty-three, I followed the motion picture: ‘Bridge over the River Kwai’ into Burma’s jungles—smuggling myself past borders with rebel fighters. Then came Laos. Cambodia and Vietnam, where I arrived in February 1968, during the Tet Offensive with $0.75 in my pocket. Broke, I traded a battlefield pistol for a Nikon F with 105 mm lens. That swap birthed my career: from UPI TV cameraman to freelance photojournalist, trading security for freedom.

My images of Chile’s 1973 coup resulted in winning the Robert Capa Gold Medal award for "best published photographic reporting from abroad requiring exceptional courage and enterprise". I continued to photograph South America’s unrest. Two years documenting blood, death and hope from Argentina to Venezuela.

In 1975 Hollywood called, the dream machine that launched my restlessness. When Apocalypse Now became my unlikely canvas, I’d come full circle: from ‘Real’ war to ‘Reels’ of silver-screen fantasies.

After 14 years in Hollywood, I quit. I’d had enough.

Bought a 44-foot sailboat and spent 34 years roaming the oceans—I traded my cameras for open seas.

“You’re full of shit,” people said when I shared my life.

“I read the papers, I watch television—I don’t believe you, that never happened.”

What did I learn? That most people believe what they need to believe to lead happy, worry free lives.

My photo books – ‘Apocalypse Now: The Lost Photo Archive’ and ‘Chile: The Photo Archive 1973-1974’ – have sold thousands worldwide. My Dutch autobiography, hailed for its spirit of "Hemingway, Tintin, and Jan Cremer" (NRC Handelsblad), laid bare the journey. Now, I'm seeking a publisher/agent to bring the unfiltered English version to the world: the story of how a Robert Capa award winning photojournalist and army-rejected nomad forged an unforgettable artistic legacy through the viewfinder.

This site holds fragments of that journey. A story, waiting for a publisher brave enough.

Some of the comments in the Dutch Press on my autobiography:

“Thunders on in the spirit of Hemingway, Tintin and "‘I, Jan Cremer.’”  – NRC Handelsblad

 “A bizarre life story.”  – Menno Bentveld bij Tijd voor Max

'More insane than you can imagine. [...] An irresistible book.' – Jeroen Vullings bij Nieuwsweekend op NPO Radio 1'