Hannes is someone who truly looks. All his life. More closely, for longer and with more courage than most of us.

He photographed Freddie Mercury on stage and cowboys on the open plains of America. He captured the world of fashion. His pictures now hang in museums. A life that would have been enough for three.

And yet, in his mid-sixties, Hannes started all over again. In Cambodia, he had an encounter that struck him to the heart. He could have moved on. He stayed. From that one moment, Smiling Gecko grew. A place where more than 600 children now learn and young people find their trade. A place that gives many thousands of people a future.

Anyone who meets Hannes can feel it: for him, art and humanity are one. He sees beauty in a child’s face just as he does in a painting. And he sees what a person can become when given a chance. That may be his greatest talent.

Those who work with him also know his impatience. He thinks in big pictures and wants to make them real today rather than tomorrow. It was exactly this impatience that turned a vision into a campus.

At 80, Hannes still takes to the stage, paints and travels to Cambodia. His eye is as sharp as ever.

Dear Hannes, we join the campus in its song, with all our hearts.