About René van Bakel

Photographer | Author | Historical Research | Journalist · Visual Storytelling Expert · Founder of DOLCE ETRURIA

René van Bakel is an author, journalist, and specialist in historical research and visual storytelling, with more than 30 years of international experience across over 80 countries. His work combines in-depth research, journalism, photography, and visual storytelling. His photographic work has appeared in leading international media including National Geographic, The New York Times, Le Figaro, and Vogue.

Founder of the international Image and Text agency ASAblanca in Vienna, providing Storytelling Content to global Media Outlets. After serving as the CEO | Managing Director for six years, he sold his shares.

For more than 25 years, René has been developing DOLCE ETRURIA: a long-term investigative journalistic and cultural research project built on decades of fieldwork, interviews and on-location investigation, with an extensive body of original visual documentation created along the way. The project explores both the origins and the present-day expression of La Dolce Vita in Italy.

In 2022, René was appointed as an external lecturer for Visual Storytelling in the “Digital Photography & New Visual Media” master’s program at St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences.

Commercial & Commissioned Visual Storytelling

Photo | Video | Drone Services – Crafting premium 3D visual content for luxury events, advertising, travel, and lifestyle, event conception & (co)creation

Visual Storytelling in all its forms remains his passion, which he applies not only to his book projects but also to visualizing marketing strategies and advertising campaigns, premium event coverage, conception & (co) creation. From 2018 onwards, integration of 3-D storytelling (photo-video-drone coverage), as well as responsible/copyright-, and GDPR-proof AI workflow integration. In 2019, he further expanded his expertise by becoming an EU-certified UAS pilot, including certification for large drones up to 25 kg.

YouTube channel: René van Bakel’s Dolce Etruria

Holistic Visual Storytelling Creations: Dolce Etruria Visual Creators.

Specialities:

Book Creation & Writing, Investigative Journalism, Long-form Research and Visual Documentation, Visual Content Creation (Photo, Video, Drone), Movie Projects, Portraits, Home-Stories, Architecture, Travel/Art/Culture, Hotels & Hospitality, Event Coverage/Conception/(Co)Direction, and selected corporate assignments.

Since 2025, René has also been sharing more than three decades of experience in visual storytelling through the DE Visual StorySelling Academy, teaching courses and strategic programs for professional audiences.

Selected Publications:

New York Times, LA Times, VOGUE Germany, Le Figaro (France), Liberation (France), GEO, National Geographic, Forbes, Bloomberg Markets New York, The Guardian, Mail on Sunday, Sunday Times, Preview Dubai, Stern, Newsweek, Capital (G+J), Universum Magazine, Der Standard/Rondo, das Profil, News, Woman, Die Presse, Die Zeit, Wienerin, Servus Magazine, Falstaff, Der Tagesanzeiger, Freizeit/Kurier, Algemeen Dagblad, G-photo world news (Japan), US Air Force, SQ-Magazine, Life Style Magazine, The Art of Living, Executive Magazine, Residence, Doctors without Borders, UNICEF

Selected Books:

„SPANISH RIDING SCHOOL 450 years“ photographic volume (Edition Lammerhuber) 2015 – click here for the book!
„Mein Waldviertel“ 2014 Culinary/Travel/Culture about the Austrian Woodquarter. Published by Styria Books/Pichler Verlag
„So schmeckt das Weinviertel“ 2013 Culinary/Travel/Culture about the Austrian Wine Quarter. Published by Styria Books/Pichler Verlag
„Tussen hamer en aambeeld” 1996 (Between Hammer and Anvil), about the critical situation facing both the people of Srebrenica and the Dutch battalion in 1994, shortly before the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995.
„Care provided“ 1994 about the care being provided in Goma to the 1 million refugees of the war between the Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994.

Exhibitions:

Vienna | Austria DOLCE ETRURIA goes FLEMINGs 2022
Cortona | Italy at Medici Fortress La Fortezza del Girifalco 2019
Vienna | Austria The Etruscan Spirit 2018
Vienna | Objektivpreis 2009
Fabbriche di Vallicho | (Lucca) Italy 2004
Deurne | Netherlands 2003
ESA (The Man with the Iron Mask) | Ilse de St. Marguerite Cannes | France 2002
Bakel | Netherlands “Digital Paintings of Bakel and region” 2001
Eindhoven | The Netherlands Tussen Hamer en Aambeeld 2001
Arnhem | The Netherlands 1999
Sydney Australia “Bosnia & Goma” 1998
Den Haag the Netherlands “Bosnia & Goma” 1996 - 1997
Sibiu | Rumania: War Correspondents Award Winners “Tussen Hamer en Aambeeld” - Srebrenica (Bosnia H.)

Selected Awards:

Commercial Photographer of the year 2019 – Central Europe (CV Media Innovator Awards)
PX3 PRIX DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE PARIS Awards 2016
One Eyeland International Photography Awards 2015 (Both for his book: SPANISH RIDING SCHOOL 450 years)
PHOTOARM 1995 – war correspondents’ award for his feature on Srebrenica (Bosnia H.)

Selected Clients:

Superfund, Vapiano, ÖBB, AIT, Ö-Post AG, Agrana, Magna Steyr, FFG, BMVIT, Rolex, Austrian Airlines, Spanish Riding School Vienna, TNT, DHL, NÖM, ÖBF, Merkur, Stiegl, Gösser, Nike, VDL Group, Philips Medical Systems, ING, Rabobank, Campina, Fokker, Schiphol

Selected Portraits:

Andrea Bocelli, Fernando Botero, Queen Beatrix, President Bill Clinton, Sharon Stone, King Willem Alexander, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Stefan Ruzowitzky, Frances Mayes, Pamela Anderson, Pope Benedict XVI, Marlies Schild, Hannes Reichelt, Michael Ostrowski, Barbara Stöckl, Dominic Meyer, Heinz Kinigardner, Robert Palfrader, Simply Red, Nena, Kris Kristofferson, Patty Smith, Julia Dujmovits, Gerda Rogers, Florian Scheuba, Nadja Bernhard, Rudi Rubinek, Nicole Beutler, Dörte Lyssewski, Christian Konrad, President Heinz Fischer, The Weather Girls

Location:

Based in Vienna and Eichgraben (Vienna Forest), Austria.