Paris, Île-de-France, France
Hoi! I'm Joost, a Dutch journalist based in Paris, France. Before I moved here, I worked as a photographer and Africa correspondent for international media houses like The Guardian and El País, and Dutch newspapers Trouw and de Volkskrant. I'm available for text and photography assignments. Drop me a message at [email protected].
Since the beginning of 2026, I’m working as a freelance journalist, photographer and communications specialist based in Paris, France.
For Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, I wrote about a wide range of subjects related to the vast African continent, as their Africa Correspondent. I worked on news stories, analysis pieces, interviews, culture stories and (mostly) longform reportage stories.
As a freelance photographer and filmmaker, I worked on impactful stories about contemporary issues through photography, text, audio and video for Dutch and international clients. From 2018 until 2025, I have worked on articles, photo series, multimedia productions and video reports in many countries across Africa. My work has been published and broadcasted by several Dutch and international clients, including The Guardian, National Geographic, The Financial Times, El País, The New York Times, The Telegraph, Al Jazeera, NRC Handelsblad, NOS, RTL Nieuws, Trouw, VPRO and of course also de Volkskrant. A more complete list of clients can be found on joostbastmeijer.com/clients.
For about four years, I contributed texts and photos for photo books that are initiated and designed by MENDO and published by Terra Lannoo and German publisher teNeues. We have worked together on several projects, like 'Starring Amsterdam', multiple books in the city-focused ‘Streets Of’ series, 'Carli Hermès - Three decades of uncompromising photography', 'Living in Style: Amsterdam', 'Sportret', 'The Workshop' and 'Depart'. For most of the named books, I was responsible for all of the accompanying (English and Dutch) texts, including forewords, captions and the blurb on the back cover. In 'Depart', there is one chapter that features photos I took on a trip to Israel, Jordan and Palestine.
As Content Manager of Charlie's Travels, I was responsible for all outgoing (both audiovisual and text) content. Based in Nairobi, the Dutch travel startup organizes custom made trips to East Africa. With a small, international and on-the-ground team of travel experts, 'CT' is the go-to company for 'off the beaten track' trips to Eastern and Southern Africa.