Rineke Dijkstra
- aliciarbarron
- Jan 12, 2018
- 2 min read
An extract from an interview with Rineke Dijkstra
What interests you about the transition of a person?
"I think photography really lets you examine how a person is changing. When I was photographing Olivier, the Frenchman who enlisted in the Foreign Legion, every time I went to see him I thought he hadn't changed at all. But in the picture you can see the change in his eyes, in his expression. They were subtle, but you could see them clearly."
What is your aim when taking pictures?
"I want to show things you might not see in normal life. I make normal things appear special. I want people to look at life in a new and different way, but it always has to be based on reality. It's important that you don't pass judgement, and leave space for interpretation. For example, in the Almerisa series, the young Bosnian refugee, whose portrait I took for the first time in the early 1990s, it was important for me not to show any specific details of her surroundings such as the décor of the apartment. If you show too much of a subject's personal life, the viewer will immediately make assumptions. If you leave out the details, the viewer has to look for much subtler hints such as how her shoelaces are tied, or her lipstick or the state of her The same goes for the picture of the boy in Odessa.You could show he is poor by including a trashcan or a stray cat in the picture. But for me it's all about subtlety and the fact that you really have to read the image to get clues about the boy.That makes it equal for everybody."
https://www.popphoto.com/how-to/2008/12/conversation-rineke-dijkstra
For me Rineke Dijkstra highlights an important issue for me within my work, she states that "its important you do not pass judgement and leave space for interpretation". I aim leave my work quite open so that the viewer can form they own idea of the people depicted. I kind of what to bring a more human element to public view of the NHS rather than the statistics that are blurted out by politicians on 'Question time'. We all know that the NHS constantly overstretched and understaffed because we are told by News broadcasters but often the individuals that make up the NHS and face that strain daily are forgotten. However on saying this I do not want to make my work overtly political as I feel it would be frankly pointless and take away from
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