Rineke Dijkstra wins the 2017 Hasselblad Award

“Rineke Dijkstra’s photographs and films speak brilliantly to the intricacy of the portrait image: its embodiment in time; its capacity to reveal history; the contingency of the act of exchange between sitter, photographer and spectator; and, ultimately, photography’s revelation of the self.
“At a moment when the portrait image dissipates itself in an economy of narcissism and fractal celebrity, Rineke Dijkstra reminds us of the photographic portrait’s public potential,” says Duncan Forbes, chair of the jury for the Hasselblad Award 2017, which has awarded the Dutch photographer the SEK1,000,000 prize [just over £90,000].

Born in 1959 in Sittard, The Netherlands, Dijkstra attended the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and first came to prominence in the 1990s, with a series of photographs of mothers and their children moments after birth, and with portraits of bullfighters just after leaving the ring. In the series Beach Portraits [1992-2002], she showed children by the sea in Europe and the USA, picking out youngsters on the cusp of adolescence.
Dijkstra is known for working on long-term projects, such as her series of images of Almerisa Sehric. First shooting Almerisa as a six-year-old asylum seeker recently fled Bosnia for The Netherlands [see lead image above], Dijkstra has continued returned to photograph her every few years, documenting her transition to teenager, young woman, and mother.

Almerisa, Asylumseekerscenter Leiden, March 14, 1994 © Rineke Dijkstra
Almerisa, Asylumseekerscenter Leiden, March 14, 1994 © Rineke Dijkstra
Almerisa, Wormer, June 23, 1996 © Rineke Dijkstra
Almerisa, Wormer, June 23, 1996 © Rineke Dijkstra
Almerisa, Leidschendam, December 9, 2000 © Rineke Dijkstra
Almerisa, Leidschendam, December 9, 2000 © Rineke Dijkstra
Almerisa, Leidschendam, March 24, 2007 © Rineke Dijkstra
Almerisa, Leidschendam, March 24, 2007 © Rineke Dijkstra
Almerisa, Zoetermeer, June 19, 2008 © Rineke Dijkstra
Almerisa, Zoetermeer, June 19, 2008 © Rineke Dijkstra
Her series Olivier, shot in 2000-03 shows a young man from his enlistment with the French Foreign Legion through his years of service; she photographed young Israeli soldier Shany twice, showing her on her first induction day in uniform in 2002, and after she quit the army in 2003.
Dijkstra has also shot video portraits since the mid-1990s, most famously in clubs such as The Buzz Club, Liverpool, UK/Mystery World, Zaandam, NL (1996–97), and The Krazyhouse (Megan, Simon, Nicky, Philip, Dee), Liverpool, UK (2009). Since 2014, she has filmed young Russian ballet dancers during their rehearsals.
Olivier, Camp Rafalli, Calvi, Corica, June 18, 2001 © Rineke Dijkstra
Olivier, Camp Rafalli, Calvi, Corica, June 18, 2001 © Rineke Dijkstra
The Hasselblad Center in Gothenberg will stage an exhibition of Dijkstra’s work in October, plus a symposium held on 10 October. At the same time, an exhibition of her work will also go on show at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.
The Hasselblad Foundation was established in 1979 and its Award is considered one of the most prestigious in photography. The prize is judged by a different jury each year, and the 2017 jury was made up of: Duncan Forbes (jury chair) curator and writer based in London and Los Angeles, and visiting research fellow at the Institute for Modern and Contemporary Culture at the University of Westminster, London; Jennifer Blessing, senior curator of photography at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Simon Njami, curator and writer, Paris; Esther Ruelfs, head of the photography and new media department at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg; and Mark Sealy, curator and director of Autograph ABP in London.

www.hasselbladfoundation.se
Villa Franca De Xira,Portugal, May 8, 1994 © Rineke Dijkstra
Villa Franca De Xira,Portugal, May 8, 1994 © Rineke Dijkstra
Shany, Palhamin Israeli Airforce Base, Oct8, 2002 © Rineke Dijkstra
Shany, Palhamin Israeli Airforce Base, Oct8, 2002 © Rineke Dijkstra
Shany, Herzliya, August 1, 2003 © Rineke Dijkstra
Shany, Herzliya, August 1, 2003 © Rineke Dijkstra
Vondelpark, Amsterdam, June 10, 2005 © Rineke Dijkstra
Vondelpark, Amsterdam, June 10, 2005 © Rineke Dijkstra
Amy, The Krazy House, Liverpool, December 23, 2008 © Rineke Dijkstra
Amy, The Krazy House, Liverpool, December 23, 2008 © Rineke Dijkstra
Marianna And Sasha, Kingisepp, Russia, November 2, 2014 © Rineke Dijkstra
Marianna And Sasha, Kingisepp, Russia, November 2, 2014 © Rineke Dijkstra
Diane Smyth

Diane Smyth is the editor of BJP, returning for a second stint on staff in 2023 - after 15 years on the team until 2019. As a freelancer, she has written for The Guardian, FT Weekend Magazine, Creative Review, Aperture, FOAM, Aesthetica and Apollo. She has also curated exhibitions for institutions such as The Photographers Gallery and Lianzhou Foto Festival. You can follow her on instagram @dismy