Rineke Dijkstra facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Rineke Dijkstra
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Dijkstra in 2011
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| Born | 2 June 1959 Sittard, Netherlands
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| Nationality | Dutch |
| Education | Gerrit Rietveld Academie |
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Notable work
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Beach Portraits, Almerisa, Olivier, The Buzzclub, Daniel, Adi, Shira, and Keren, Rishonim High School, Herzliya, Israel |
| Awards | HonFRPS |
Rineke Dijkstra (born June 2, 1959) is a famous Dutch photographer. She lives and works in Amsterdam, the capital city of the Netherlands. Rineke Dijkstra has won many important awards for her photography, including the Hasselblad Award in 2017, which is like a Nobel Prize for photographers. She also received an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society.
Contents
Early Life and Learning
Dijkstra was born on June 2, 1959, in Sittard, a town in the Netherlands. She studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam from 1981 to 1986. After finishing her studies, she worked for a few years taking photos for businesses. She would take pictures for company reports and portraits of people who worked there.
Her Photography Work
Rineke Dijkstra is known for taking unique portraits of people. She often works on a series of photos, focusing on groups like teenagers, people at clubs, or soldiers. Her subjects usually stand facing the camera against a simple background. This style helps viewers focus on the person in the picture.
Famous Photo Series
Dijkstra's Beach Portraits (1992–1994) made her very well known. For this series, she photographed teenagers and younger children on beaches in different countries. The photos are almost life-size and show the young people standing by the water.
Another important project is the video installation Buzzclub/Mysteryworld (1996–1997). She also created the Tiergarten Series (1998–2000) and Israeli Soldiers (1999–2000).
Portraits Over Time
Dijkstra also creates series where she photographs the same person over many years. This shows how they change and grow.
- Almerisa (1994–2008): This series follows a young girl named Almerisa, whose family came from Bosnia. Dijkstra photographed her about every two years, starting when Almerisa was six. The photos show her growing up and adapting to life in Western Europe. Dijkstra used a plain background for these photos, just like in her Beach Portraits.
- Olivier (2000–2003): This series shows a young man named Olivier Silva. Dijkstra photographed him as he joined the French Foreign Legion and during his time serving as a soldier. The pictures show how he changed physically and mentally.
- Shany (1999–2003): This series follows a young Israeli woman named Shany. Dijkstra photographed her at different stages, including when she joined the army, while she was a soldier, and after she left.
Park Portraits
For the Park Portraits series (2003–2006), Dijkstra photographed children and teenagers in parks. She took pictures in famous parks like Amsterdam's Vondelpark and Brooklyn's Prospect Park. The photos show them pausing their activities to look at the camera.
How She Takes Photos
Dijkstra uses a special camera called a 4x5 inch view camera. She places it on a tripod with a standard lens. She also uses a flash on another tripod behind her subjects. Even when photographing children on the beach, she uses this setup. The flash helps to reduce strong shadows and make faces clearer, but natural daylight is always her main light source.
Video Art
Rineke Dijkstra has also made video art.
- The Buzzclub, Liverpool, UK/Mysteryworld, Zaandam, NL (1996–1997): For this video, Dijkstra visited two nightclubs. She set up a studio in each club and asked young people to dance one at a time in front of the camera. The video shows the contrast between the girls in Liverpool and the boys in the Netherlands.
- Ruth Drawing Picasso, Tate Liverpool, UK (2009): This video simply shows an English schoolgirl named Ruth drawing a portrait of Dora Maar while sitting on the floor at the Tate Liverpool museum.
- Night Watching (2019): In this video, Dijkstra filmed people as they reacted to Rembrandt's famous painting, The Night Watch, at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Exhibitions and Awards
Rineke Dijkstra's photographs have been shown in many art exhibitions around the world. Her work has been featured in major events like the Venice Biennale and the Bienal de Sao Paulo.
Major Exhibitions
In 2012, a large exhibition of her work called Rineke Dijkstra: A Retrospective was shown. It traveled from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) to the Guggenheim Museum in New York. This exhibition included more than 70 color photographs and 5 video works.
Awards She Has Won
Dijkstra has received many awards for her photography, including:
- 1994: Werner Mantz Award
- 1998: Citibank Private Bank Photography Prize
- 2012: Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society
- 2017: Winner of the Hasselblad Award, which came with a prize of €100,000.
- 2020: The Johannes Vermeer Award
Where Her Art Is Kept
Rineke Dijkstra's work is part of the permanent collections of many important art museums. This means her photos are owned by these museums and can be seen by the public. Some of these museums include:
- Tate, London
- Museum of Modern Art, New York
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Guggenheim Museum, New York
- Art Institute of Chicago
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
See also
In Spanish: Rineke Dijkstra para niños
