Rineke Dijkstra (1959)
Rineke Dijkstra's portrait photographs are about the tension between restraint and openness, between obscuring and revealing. She zooms in on the authenticity and unique characteristics of which the subject is not aware. This may be why she always returns to young people as subjects; young people are still looking for answers. They have put their childhood behind them, but do not yet know who they are as adults.
Dijkstra received international acclaim for her series Strandportretten ('Beach Portraits') (1992-1996), in which she photographed adolescents in bathing clothes on the cotidal line in Poland, the Ukraine, the United States and the Netherlands. They were stark portraits of adolescents looking directly into the lens of the camera. Uncertain, shy, playful or acting tough. Dijkstra saw herself in each one of them and considers the series as an extended self-portrait. Later series followed: young people in a Liverpool disco, new mothers immediately after giving birth, barely adult soldiers in Israel and bloodied Portuguese matadors immediately after a bullfight. In each, Dijkstra exposes the vulnerability and energy of her subjects. Her large format camera forces her to use a particular unhurried style of working. 'Working slowly leads to real concentration, not only for me, but also for my models,' Dijkstra explains. 'Then it's up to me to simply choose the right moment.'*
* H. De Lange, ‘Stilte, eenvoud en soberheid’, Trouw, 07.11.2005
