Rineke Dijkstra is a Dutch photographer, known for her portraits. She produces large scale. She looks into different groups of people, such as adolescence, bull fighters and women who have just given birth. The large, simply composed portraits mean the viewer can really engage with the subject .
The series I’m most interested in is her Beach Portraits. She explores young people from around the world, posed on a beach. Like what I am exploring, she looks at the awkward stage between childhood and adulthood. The way she documented these people is really clever. She uses a flash which means there is no shadow and makes the subject stand out. In an interview, Dijkstra says that by taking people out of their context, it is just about the subject. This means you can focus on the details. Also putting them in that setting can make them feel uncomfortable, you can see this by the way they are stood, such as raising shoulders slightly. She also waits for a moment when they are more unaware so they appear more natural. She says, “I don’t want a pose in which people comply with a certain image [that] they try to control and that reveals only the intention of how they want to be perceived…I wait for a moment in which they display a certain introversion.”
What is interesting about the series is that although they are taken in different countries at different times, the plain background on sand and sea gives no indication of were it is taken. It is interesting that they are taken far apart from each other. Each person probably has completely different lives but they are all similar in their awkward, teenage phase.
The left and right photo in the images above are really interesting to compare. They look different, as one wears a bikini whereas the other chose a swimming costume.The left girl looks a little more awkward and not as confident as the one on the right. This is indicated by the way she has raised her hand to her hair. Again there is little information on where these photos were taken but what is intriguing is that they are posed very similarly. They both have one leg slightly in front of the other, a hand on one. One shoulder slightly raised. This could be because through things such as the media this is how they think they should pose. As they are getting older they are becoming more aware of how they should represent themselves.
Lucy Davis 