Beach Portraits
Rineke Dijkstra
RINEKE DIJKSTRA, 1992.
Oft copied, never bettered. Rineke Dijkstra's first photo series 'Beach Portraits' is a masterpiece of portraiture, the influence of which can be seen in the contemporary canon that has emerged since its release. Photographing beach-going adolescents from America, Croatia, Ukraine, Britain and Poland in a uniform style, yet each one resplendent with the trembling flicker of authentic life. Dijkstra's photography is a two way street, a dance between subject and artist and never more so than in these images where the anxieties, confidences, shame and joy of youth are on full display, in nothing more than a glance. The flatness of the lighting, of the horizon that bisects the changing bodies, knobbly knees and growth spurts of teenage-hood, forces a level of uncomfortable intimacy. The scenes are bare, nothing distracts from their subjects, whose long gazes intimidate, confront and welcome