Rineke Dijkstra

      

 Rineke is a photographer from the Netherlands who has a series on portraits of growing adolescents on the beach. Dijkstra takes low perspective images and  uses the relationship between the content and viewer to bring this uncomfortable feeling to us. Her intent is to make the viewer and the subject uncomfortable with each other. I think that through these images she is trying to make us feel this awkwardness that these kids are feeling. This is kind of like a brief look into how weird and awkward growing up really is. She takes these images on a windy beach, while her subjects pose in a weird and awkward manner. Honestly if this was me posing in front of a camera on a windy day while in a bathing suit, i would look awkward as well. My favorite image from hers is the last one, the one of the girl with the very dark hair in the stripped bathing suit. Her expression mixed with her uncomfortable body position further wraps the entire intent that this series is about. I like how she does something different, instead of doing normal portraits of kids on beaches/