Rineke Dijkstra makes photographic portraits. With her conceptual approach to documentary photography, she belongs to the international tradition that ranges from August Sander (1876-1964) through to Diane Arbus (1923-71) and contemporaries such as Thomas Ruff (b. 1958) and Koos Breukel (b. 1962). Typical of Dijkstra and her contemporaries is that they start from direct observation of reality but also create visual distance by imposing strict rules around imagery and content.
After studying at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, Dijkstra spent seven years working as a photographer for fashion magazines such as Elle and Elegance. A serious accident in 1990 triggered a change in her photographic technique. Self-portrait, Marnixbad, Amsterdam (1991) captures her recovery from a hip fracture. With this photo, she distances herself from the straitjacket of poses that she knew from her commercial work. She made her international breakthrough with Beach Portraits (1992-2002), which reflect her quest for an authentic form of portraiture. She portrayed young people on beaches in the Netherlands, Poland and Belgium. She issued few instructions and waited patiently for perfect pose, thus communicating the moment when hesitation and doubt become visible. The subjects stand before sea, the latter of which is an open, boundless space, the only limits being the frame itself. These unglamourous images confront us with the idea of existential loneliness.
Other series demonstrate that Dijkstra purposely seeks the limits to which emotional intensity can be photographed. In New Mothers (1994), she depicts women cradling their babies just after delivery. These are monumental images that reveal traces of pain and struggle, but also victory. Dijkstra’s Bullfighters (1994-2000), in which she captures the faces and torsos of the matadors after exiting the arena, are similar. Dijkstra’s images are razor sharp, conceal nothing, and are somewhat merciless. Yet her subjects are never tragic or the objects of voyeurism. Dijkstra connects with her intuitively selected models and is genuinely interested in them. She emphasises their unique qualities and focuses on minute details: a piercing gaze, a gesture, an attitude. This creates intimacy within her monumental portraits.
Dijkstra later realised a series about a Bosnian girl she met at an asylum centre in Leiden, whom she followed for years, Almerisa (1994-2008). This series was followed by Israeli Soldiers (1999-2003) and Parks (1998-2006), the latter of which depicts groups of young people in public gardens. Since 1996, Dijkstra has also been creating video portraits, such as Annemiek (I wanna be with you) (1997), featuring a Dutch teenager singing her favourite song, and I See a Woman Crying (Weeping Woman) (2009), in which schoolchildren discuss Picasso’s Weeping Woman. In The Gymschool, St Petersburg (2014), she filmed trainee ballerinas contorting themselves into seemingly impossible poses while suppressing their emotions. Dijkstra hereby expresses her fascination with physical tension at the tipping point between striking a pose and being yourself.
