Rineke Dijkstra: A Retrospective, exh. cat., San Francisco Museum of Modern Art/Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2012, no. 79, pp. 63, 241 (p. 79, another example illustrated)

‘Dijkstra has a gift for revealing the eternal within the everyday, and she imbues her portraits with an elemental, almost mythic quality that seems to transcend the carefully observed particulars of national identity and class.’ – The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The present work is part of Dutch-born photographer Rineke Dijkstra’s revered series of full-length portraits taken on various European beaches, executed between 1992 and 1996. Other examples from this particular edition are included in the permanent collections of the Tate, London and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Widely recognised as one of the most prominent and influential contemporary artists working in photography, Dijkstra’s colourful, pristine and often expansive works align her with contemporaries Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky, and Thomas Ruff, but she what distinguishes her is her fascination with the human subject in states of flux or change.