What is important about the work of rineke Dijkstra?

Zoe BEACH PORTRAITS What is important about the work of rineke Dijkstra? By Zoe Curry, Anna Ellis, Lois Colley, Ryan Free and Tom Daniell

Zoe Context • Dijkstra was born in 1959 in Sittard, a city in the Netherlands • Representation of youth and the transition to adulthood • Her work bears witness to social pressures • She often works in series • The subjects of Beach Portraits reveal a lot about their own anxieties • Complex understanding of the traditions of portraiture • The young people in Beach Portraits allow us to see far more of themselves than most subjects of contemporary portraiture Tate. (n.d.). Rineke Dijkstra | Tate. [online] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/display/rineke-dijkstra [Accessed 5 Oct. 2018].

Zoe Context • Beach Portraits began in the Summer of 1992 ”In the Beach Portraits she established her voice as an artist: an empathetic voice that addresses our existential humanness by presenting the subject as a unique individual removed from everyday details and standing vulnerable within the universe” - Carol Ehlers • Dijkstra studied photography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam • She started photographing friends in their homes, then moved into the studio Dijkstra, R. (2002). Beach Portraits. Chicago: LaSalle Bank.

Zoe Context • She made a self-portrait taken at the pool “I found [the lack of a conscious pose] so revealing. I liked it also because of its bareness – of course also because of the fact that I wore nothing but a bathing suit. You can really see what you look like. It’s almost nude, but yet it is not naked.” – Rineke Dijkstra • The following Summer, Dijkstra began to photograph people on the beach Dijkstra, R. (2002). Beach Portraits. Chicago: LaSalle Bank.

Anna Approach & critical responses • Sandra Phillips, senior curator of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, described her as “deeply interested in how photography is an emotional act.” This is in part due to a tragic collision she endured with a car whilst cycling, leaving her in critical condition. At this time, she realised the vulnerability of humankind, which shows in her Beach Portraits. • In 1991, during her intensive rehabilitation after the bike accident, Ms. Dijkstra made what she calls her first truthful portrait, an image of herself just out of the lap pool, staring down the camera with a look of determination and sheer fatigue. Realizing that physical exertion could ease her subjects’ self-consciousness gave her the idea to try photographing on the beach.

Anna Approach & critical responses • Dijkstra describes herself as a natural introvert, and uses photography to connect with people. Erin Kinney, the subject of her orange bikini beach portrait recalls this quite well, twenty years on - “I look at that photograph now and see someone who is very insecure and vulnerable, but I didn’t think about those things when I was 14,” said Ms. Kinney, now 34, who remembers anticipating that the session would feel like a glamorous modelling shoot. “I definitely came into it with an idea of what was going to happen. But because there wasn’t a lot of direction, it made me feel very awkward. I wasn’t being told what to do.” • But Dijkstra was making a conscious decision in her absence of direction. Dijkstra doesn’t like to talk much during a shoot - she tries to create room for something genuine to happen. “When you take a photograph,” she said, “you look in a more objective way,” but there is also a connection between photographer and subject. “It’s recognition, as Diane Arbus said.” “I’m not just an observer,” she added. “We have to respond to each other. It’s a kind of tension which I like.”

Anna

Tom & Lois Materials & Techniques What equipment do you use? “I use a 4x5 inch field camera with a standard lens and a tripod. The negatives are the size of postcards, which gives you really wonderful sharp detail and contrast. The end result is that your photograph is almost more real than reality.” How do you set up your lights? “In the beginning I always had really complicated lighting set-ups because I thought: the more lights, the better the picture. Now I work with as few lights as possible. For me, daylight is the main source of light, and the flash is really only there to lighten theshadows. I use one Lumedyne flash. It works with batteries so you can use it inside and outside.” How do you edit your pictures? “I scan the negatives and make them bigger so you can see more. Then I might leave them for two weeks because you need distance to see properly. It happens to me that I take a picture and I think it doesn't work at all and then I look at it three years later and I think it's a great picture. It's probably linked to having something in mind and being disappointed that your expectations weren't met, but then realizing later that it was in fact a lucky moment. But in general I make sure the light, the facial expression and the posture of the body look right.” Why do you print your images large format? “I like it when a picture is monumental - especially in a museum setting. But for me it's also important that if you stand in front of my picture, you feel the urge to come closer. If photos are too large, people tend to look at them only from a distance. I like them to be printed big enough so people view them from a distance but small enough so that they step forward and look for all the details in the picture. I think there is a whole story in all those details. It's about intimacy too.” popphoto.com

Tom & Lois Materials & Techniques • Camera: Linhof Master Technika 4×5 with Rodenstock 150mm lens and Fuji Pro 160S film, set on a tripod 8 feet back. Shot at 1/125, f16, ISO 160. • Lighting: The key light is a Lumedyne light with standard reflector at f16 just to camera right. The sun is up to camera right also at f8, but pretty diffused due to the overcast skies. The extra stop of light on the model helps draw our eye to her and separates her from the background. www.guessthelighting.com

Tom & Lois Dark & overcast background Introverted subject- arm in front of body- body conscious, nervous. Weight on one leg, other one bent in front Horizontal beach/horizon line- matrix

Ryan How does ‘beach portraits’ compare to Dijkstra’s other work?

Ryan

Zoe Rineke Dijkstra: A Retrospective Guggenheim Museum: https://youtu.be/uSAmkX26cdw?t=46 Start – 0:46 End – 2:38

What is important about the work of rineke Dijkstra?