Hendrik Kerstens

This is work by Dutch photographer Hendrik Kerstens. The images I have selected are four of numerous photographs of his daughter. Here he has chosen to project his fascination with seventeenth century Dutch painters upon her. This is achieved successfully via the rather severe, confrontational character of the photographs, as well as their undeniable clarity and Kerstens's use of characteristically Dutch light. The first photograph in particular is rather reminiscent of the Johannes Vermeer painting entitled Girl with a Pearl Earring. The second appears to have a slightly softer focus than the other three producing a more painterly effect. Overall his work exhibits an appreciation of the fact that people are the same regardless of the age they lived in. Any association with a particular period of animate existence is established through the way we are depicted.