2025 recap

Happy New Year.

Red Line has just completed its first full year!

Here’s a wrap-up of what we’ve published this year on Red Line, bringing reporting from different regions that looks at power, repression, environmental harm and resistance.

At the start of this year, Tristen exhibited his photo series on South Africa’s amaBhaca, Ingrid reported for The Guardian and New Lines Magazine on Serbia’s student growing movement, and World Press Photo showcased Nathalie’s work from South Africa.

Nathalie was also shortlisted for the Royal Geographical Society’s Earth Photo award for her photos from Snake Park, a township in Johannesburg, where people live in the shadow of an enormous mine dump filled with a profane amount of toxins and metals.

In spring our articles about overfishing of krill in the Antarctic – with Daily Maverick, Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, De Groene Amsterdammer, Vreme, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Korea Center for Investigative Journalism – came out. To research this truly devastating trade, Tristen, Nathalie and Ingrid travelled from Puntas Arenas in Chile to Norway to Seoul, Korea. It was a lot of fun, and definitely freezing (see Tristen here, trying to blend in with the penguins).

To stick with the cold and the destruction of biodiversity, another highlight of the year was our interview with Dr. Allison Skidmore, a truly badass wildlife crime expert. A few years ago, she went undercover to investigate tiger poaching in Siberia. As a National Geographic Explorer, Skidmore embedded with Siberian hunters and tracked poachers through the taiga, exposing the criminal networks behind the illegal tiger trade.

Over the summer democracy took a plunge. Tristen reviewed the Trump administration for Business Day, and concluded that Trump rose to power on a broken social contract. On the other side of the Atlantic, Ingrid documented the quiet exodus of queer Americans to the Netherlands for Arte and – thirty years after the Sebrenica genocide in Bosnia – reflected on the lessons learned with a genocide survivor and a Dutch soldier.

In the fall, Ingrid and Nathalie investigated Belgium’s prison system crisis for New Lines Magazine. We also learned from brilliant photographer Charlotte Schmitz who published her new book, Balat – on life behind doors in one of Istanbul’s oldest neighbourhoods.

Following exhibitions at the Ostrale Biennale in Dresden and the group show On Photography in Düsseldorf, Nathalie presented a solo exhibition in Eupen, Belgium, featuring, among other works, images from her DRC series Maître Chou.

Then, it was on to northern Sweden where we followed Sámi herders as they tried to protect their last reindeer route while Europe aimed to dig for rare earth metals for the green transition. This project was funded by Journalismfund Europe and done with Süddeutsche Zeitung, De Groene, Vreme and Cultural Survival. It resulted in a radio documentary here!

Have a lovely new year!

Red Line collective

About Red Line

Nathalie, Ingrid and Tristen investigate under-reported issues across the globe, uncovering the forces that shape our world. Our work focuses on democracy, culture and environmental crimes. We follow the money, track the powerful and dig deep to expose what lies beneath the surface. Through long-form reporting, documentary photography and multimedia storytelling, we bring hidden stories to light. Because facts and accountability matter.

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