Dutch photographer Rineke Dijkstra came up with the idea for her fascinating Beach Portraits series after breaking her hip. She had snapped some self-portraits at the pool following her physiotherapy sessions, when she realized something. “I was fascinated by capturing something unconscious and natural in a photograph, something that was miles away from the boring and predictable businessmen I had until then mostly photographed,” she has previously explained. “I was interested in photographing people at moments when they had dropped all pretense of a pose.” This is also the reason why she tends to focus on younger subjects who, while awkward, are generally less guarded in front of the camera than their adult counterparts, and for the most part, unconcerned with (or perhaps incapable of) projecting a certain image. The vulnerability in the resulting photos, which are shot in front of stark, seaside locations around the world, is simply breathtaking. Click through to check out a selection of intimate, evocative portraits from the series. For more information we invite you to visit the link below the pictures. Rineke Dijkstra tends to work in series, concentrating on individual portraits. She focuses on people in a transitional stage of their life, such as women after giving birth in ‘Mothers’, adolescents and pre-adolescents on the beach in her ‘Beach’ series and new recruits in ‘Israeli Soldiers’. Her subjects stand facing the camera against a minimal background. The simplicity of the resulting image encourages us to direct all our attention towards the isolated subject. Dijkstra has published two monographs (Rineke Dijkstra: Beach Portraits and Rineke Dijkstra: Portraits) and her work is exhibited in museums worldwide.
www.mariangoodman.com/artists/rineke-dijkstra/