Text and photos by Pelle Bonink
People I Admire started as my graduation project at the Art University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. The previous year, 2023, I did my first internship in Berlin, where the city’s club culture and queer community inspired me a lot.
At the time, I was mostly out to my friends but not the whole world. In Berlin, I found places where I could explore who I am. That’s what nightlife does.
Moving back to the Netherlands to graduate from university, I missed the club scene in Berlin and realized I had no physical evidence of meeting these amazing people and seeing their beautiful forms of self-expression. So I started going out in the Netherlands, in Amsterdam and Utrecht, where I also met incredible, fascinating people.
These are the people I started inviting to my photo studio, in an effort to capture and preserve the profound self-expression these people brought to these nights. Their confidence to express themselves so freely began to inspire my own.
While doing research, I learned that in the 1980s, photographers created evidence of that decade’s legendary parties and the people who filled them. Modern students of nightlife history and photography benefit so much from those photographers, from artists like Tod Papageorge and Meryl Meisler. Their work acts as proof that this culture happened, that it existed, even briefly, and that it was wondrous.
That’s when the idea came to make my own book about the people I’ve met. In my graduation year, I went back to Berlin to photograph people in that city. The result, People I Admire, is a mix of ravers and nightlife creatures from all these places: Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Berlin.
In the book, you’ll find my handwritten letters saying what I admire about the person being photographed, what I love about their style and presence.
Each letter is paired with a photo. In total, I photographed 36 people for this project.
After graduating from university, I moved back to Berlin to continue the project. I set a goal to photograph 100 people total for the second book, which is still in development.
There are always more people to photograph. Of course, daily life has gotten more difficult post-graduation and made it harder to commit to this project; as of this writing, I have photographed 54 people, so I am slowly working toward my goal of 100!
The photos you see here, for this first Hinterhaus photo essay, are 7 new people I photographed in Berlin, with some accompanying text about them, things I admire about each person.
People I Admire, the first book to come out of this project, is currently available at the SEVEN Community Record Store in Berlin-Mitte and on the SEVEN online shop. Every sale helps me continue this project.
Like those photographers of the 80s, I hope to leave a record for future generations that our queer nightlife happened.
While photographing people, I realized I’m not so interested in gender roles and stereotypes, and I find the people who break these norms much more interesting.
These norms are things I also started breaking while going out, but I’m not comfortable yet doing so in my day-to-day life.
My idea is that portrait #100 will be a self-portrait, and I can show off my own self-expression. This project is a journey to that moment.
If you like, visit my website, follow me on Instagram, and get my book at SEVEN Records in Berlin-Mitte.
— Pelle Bonink, 2026
Name: Daan
I met him a few years back in the Netherlands, but we never really got close to each other. This year he moved to Berlin for an internship, and we became quite close. I admire his confidence to wear whatever he pleases and that he makes most of the pieces he wears himself.
Name: Lume
This is the second photo I took of Lume. When they moved to Berlin, they changed their name, and with the name change, I also found it important to update their look in my book. They’ve gotten more confident here in exploring their gender identity, which I really admire.
Name: Mehrdad
We met here in Berlin; they host a party called Soup. I love the contrasting features of the feminine posing and look with the body hair and beard.
Name: Jacq
She is my old internship boss. What I admire about her is that she almost upcycles everything, and that she can look so heavenly and sexy at the same time.
Name: Kendall
I met him at WHOLE festival this year; he was visiting from America. I like how he mixes fetish with humor, and he wasn’t taking himself too seriously while posing.
Name: Justin
I met him at the party that Mehrdad hosts; I love the colorful expression he has.
Name: Mila
Mila is the best friend of Lume. I often see her when she visits Berlin. I love how she uses nightlife as a runway and always looks elegant and chic. I also love the juxtaposition of bringing religious objects to nightlife.
Pelle Bonink is a photographer based between Berlin and Amsterdam. Pelle focuses on people within the queer community. Visit Pelle’s website and follow them on Instagram.
Edits: Alexander Cheves
