Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Autumn Dean/ Rineke Dijkstra


Rineke Dijkstra  is a Dutch photographer that lives in Amsterdam.  Her work is mainly focused on portraits.  She works typically in series, to show her thought process.  Her series usually show the passage of time, or a personal characteristic.  Her portraits are mostly taken with a very minimal background, with the subject standing facing towards the camera.  By taking her portraits this way the viewer is forced to focus only on her subject and not be distracted by other things if they were to be put into the picture. 
My favorite series she did is called Israeli Soldiers and the individual projects that were spawned off of the main series.  In these series she takes portraits of soldiers at different times of their lives to see the physical and mental changes in their posture and appearance.  This series I think captures what she loves most and that is the change in appearance in a person in just a short period of time.  Most of the photos of the soldiers were taken in about a two year period.  In just a half a year from when that subject is photographed you can see a dramatic change in their eyes and postures. 
In her Beach Portraits she shows the moment of adolescents right before the subjects become “aware”.  I think all of Rineke series are very powerful.  She has captured more real moments than most photographers could hope to do.  Her work is very serious and meaningful and I hope one day to be able to say as much as she has through photography.

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