Rineke Dijkstra's Guggenheim retrospective

Since the early 1990s, Dutch photographer Rineke Dijkstra has been quietly producing a complex body of photographic and video work that takes a contemporary look at the world of portraiture.

Her large-scale colour photographs of young, usually adolescent subjects of Rineke Dijkstra’s portraits have been likened to 17th-century Dutch paintings due to their vastness and visual acuity. Some of her series focus on one place like a park on a summer’s day, or a particular event such as matadors blooded and exhausted after a bull fight or mothers after giving birth. Others are borne of a longer, more involved, relationship with her subjects, and see her photographing the same person repeatedly over a period of years.

Dijkstra’s approach is quiet and anti-stylised; her simple point-and-shoot portraiture sees her capturing her subjects in everyday settings such as a beach or a nightclub. “I like it when photographs are democratic,” she says. “I usually find that portraits work best if you don't have a specific idea of what you are looking for. You have to be open for anything to happen. If you try and force something, there is always the danger of a picture becoming too one-dimensional.”

The Guggenheim retrospective is the first major exhibition focusing on Rineke Dijkstra’s photography in Northern America, and is set to be he most comprehensive museum exploration of her work to date. It will feature photographers from all of her series of work and the video work will be fully integrated.

Rineke Dijkstra: A Retrospective is organised by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It will run from June 29th to October 3rd 2012. You can see a selection of images online at her gallery Marian Goodman.