Rineke Dijkstra - Portraits - 2001

The Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra has taken the formal qualities of the early-20th-century studio portrait and used this convention (the full length, frontal and centrally composed portrait) to photograph individuals. Each photographic portrait has a precise date and location, suggesting a conscious evocation of the work of August Sander and his project to document citizens of the 20th century. The photographs stand by themselves and bear no reference to personal circumstances or to specific geographical details of the location. Rineke Dijkstra is renowned for her uncanny and thoughtful portraits series of teenagers and young adults: girls and boys of various nationalities at the beach, children of Bosnian refugees, young ballet dancers. Her subjects are shown standing, facing the camera, against a minimal background. Yet, in spite of the uniformity in the photographer's works, there is a marked individuality in each of her subjects. Dijkstra often deals with the development of personality as one moves from adolescence to adulthood, or through a life-changing or potentially threatening experience, Dijkstra's "classical" portraits register the changes brought about in the faces and bodily attitudes of young people by an important experience or crucial event. This book will survey Dijkstra's photographic work.