He was born (1987) and raised in Rotterdam-East, a city district where he shared his life with many people with Indonesian roots, people with a strong sense of solidarity with one another. Stacii Simidin says: ‘I have grown together with the city.’ He compares his personal development with the growth of Rotterdam into a metropolis. As a youngster, the city neighbourhood was his stomping ground. Now, he has entered a worldwide arena as a human being, documentary photographer and documentary filmmaker.

Stacii has a passion for people and their identity, in particular for unorthodox groups of people such as gangs in neighbourhoods, backstreets and outskirts, also in Rotterdam: ‘I like to look beyond the ‘gang’ label. I see the boys behind their face coverings, and their families. I try to dispel stereotype imaging of groups, but also of Rotterdam as a city. After all, Rotterdam is much more than just the Erasmus Bridge, Sparta or Feyenoord. I stop before all those doors that people often pass by. For example, I made a photograph of children in the tenement staircase at the oude Kaap.’ This photograph won him the award ‘Power of Rotterdam’ in 2016.