by Olivia Noss // Jan. 28, 2025
Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra’s latest show, ‘Still — Moving Portraits 1992 – 2024,’ provides a rich overview of the photographer’s work, which centers around states of transition. In this vibrant oeuvre presented by the Berlinische Galerie, the photographer searches for contradiction and tension within portraiture. Although spanning a wide range of subject matter, Dijkstra’s portraits are grounded photographically through states of change. Whether depicting a transition from youth to adulthood, from one career to another or from self-inhibition to self-possession, the strength of her images rests upon the tension between these states and how they manifest visually.
Rineke Dijkstra: ‘Vondelpark, Amsterdam, June 10, 2005’ // © courtesy of the artist, Galerie Max Hetzler, Marian Goodman Gallery and Galerie Jan Mot
Dijkstra’s work focuses largely on the uneasiness and rawness of youth and the formation of identity, leveraging portraiture as a license through which to form relationships with people she might not ordinarily engage with. Working with a 4×5″ large format camera, Dijkstra’s most famous series, ‘Beach Portraits’ (1992–2002), is catalogic in essence––reminiscent of August Sanders’ images in its consistency of approach, except captured in vibrant color and printed at a human scale, allowing her subjects to loom over viewers with an aloof elegance. The color divisions of sand, sea and sky provide an almost abstract backdrop that isolates her models and brings attention to their gestures and their gazes—a subtlety and grace one might find within a Botticelli painting.
Rineke Dijkstra: ‘Kolobrzeg, Poland, July 25, 1992’ // © courtesy of the artist, Galerie Max Hetzler, Marian Goodman Gallery and Galerie Jan Mot
Without looking at the titles of these works, one might assume that many images across this retrospective were shot in the same location. However, Dijkstra worked internationally across Western and Eastern Europe, in countries like Poland, Ukraine and Croatia, as well as throughout England and the East Coast of the U.S. The titles of her photographs do not disclose the names of her subjects, but instead reveal the places where the images were shot, offering a certain anonymity to those she photographs as well as a universalizing effect to the emotions felt within each portrait.
Rineke Dijkstra: ‘Almerisa, Asylumcenter Leiden, the Netherlands, March 14, 1994’ // © courtesy of the artist, Galerie Max Hetzler, Marian Goodman Gallery and Galerie Jan Mot
When it comes to capturing the grace of young people, Dijkstra wields a sympathetic lens. She often maintains long-standing relationships with her subjects, photographing them over periods of several years, as is evidenced by her series titled ‘Almerisa, March 14, 1994, 1994–2003,’ which reveals the development of Almerisa Sehric, a young Bosnian asylum-seeker, from childhood to adulthood. This collection of images functions as a visual survey of Almerisa’s evolution, marked initially by a clear sense of uncertainty displayed by someone who has newly immigrated to a country, to a portrayal of someone who is self-possessed and well-assimilated into Dutch culture.
Rineke Dijkstra: ‘Almerisa, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, October 27, 2018’ // © courtesy of the artist, Galerie Max Hetzler, Marian Goodman Gallery and Galerie Jan Mot
Within the video portion of this retrospective, a similar yet distinct transformation happens. In Dijkstra’s 2009 piece ‘I See a Woman Crying,’ three adjacent screens depict a classroom of British Catholic schoolchildren, all asked to observe Picasso’s ‘Weeping Woman’ (1937), which sits just out of view. At first, the children watch quietly with trepidation, but as each one begins to contribute, their remarks become bolder, escalating from mere observation to speculation, spouting inferences about the emotional state of the painted figure, her motivations and even her character. “Maybe her stepmum was like…evil; maybe nobody liked her,” one student says. “Maybe that’s a million-pound bill and she can’t pay it,” adds another. This video piece reveals Dijkstra’s sustained interest in documenting the tension between an enforced collective identity, brought out by the use of school uniforms, and the individual identity of each participant.
‘Rineke Dijkstra. Still — Moving. Portraits 1992 – 2024,’ installation view, Berlinische Galerie // © Photo by Roman März
In Dijkstra’s second video piece on view, ‘The Buzz Club, Liverpool, UK / Mystery World, Zaandam, NL 1996-97,’ young club-goers are asked to dance to their favorite music in a multichannel video installation. Again, there is an element of uniformity, as they all dance in front of a white wall. Many subjects are reserved at first, even stilted, but after some time passes, they begin to dance with more ease. Some subjects even kiss each other in frame, while others copy one another. In creating these moving portraits of youth, Dijkstra exposes the insecurities of participants while at the same time providing them with the space to be themselves.
‘Rineke Dijkstra. Still — Moving. Portraits 1992 – 2024,’ installation view, Berlinische Galerie // © Photo by Roman März
This retrospective reveals the dexterity with which Dijkstra can capture a wide range of subject matter and maintain a similar tone throughout. Whether it’s refugees, clubbers, soldiers, park-goers, new mothers, schoolchildren or toreadors, Dijkstra finds a delicate discrepancy between the ways in which subjects present themselves and what the viewer actually sees. This resonant friction between tenderness and reserve, identity and uniformity, power and vulnerability exposes a universal desire for her subjects to assert themselves as individuals, however gently. There is a guarded yet inherent vulnerability to her subjects in these states of transition, yet Dijkstra portrays them as expressive and confident individuals despite their unique situations. The quiet radiance found within Dijkstra’s oeuvre pushes us to consider the frictions within ourselves, ones which, albeit difficult to reconcile, are what make us human.
Exhibition Info
Berlinische Galerie
Rineke Dijkstra: ‘Still — Moving: Portraits 1992 – 2024’
Exhibition: Nov. 8, 2024-Feb. 10, 2025
berlinischegalerie.de
Alte Jakobstraße 124-128, 10969 Berlin, click here for map
