There is the physicality with in dance; how far the human form can be pushed to its potential, the limit it can reach. Then there's the aspect of performance, and expression, what the dance tells through the personal expression and feelings shown.
There's then an element of fun expressed through dance, the link towards attraction and the primitive urge.
Rineke Dijkstra said this:
"I want to show things you might not see in normal life. I make normal things appear special. I want people to look at life in a new and different way, but it always has to be based on reality. It's important that you
don't pass judgement, and leave space for interpretation."
"I like it when photographs are democratic. 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""I try and look for an uninhibited moment, where people forget about trying to control the image of themselves. People go into sort of trance because so much concentration is needed from both photographer and the subject when you are working with a 4x5. Even the tiniest movement means you have to refocus"
The Dutch photographer Rineke Dijkstra tends to work in series, concentrating on individual portraits. She focuses on people in a transitional stage of their life, such as women after giving birth in 'Mothers', adolescents and pre-adolescents on the beach in her 'Beach' series and new recruits in 'Israeli Soldiers'. Her subjects stand facing the camera against a minial background, the simplicity of the resulting image encourages us to direct all our attention towards the isolated subject. Rineke Dijkstra's film Buzzclub, Liverpool, UK, Zaandam, NL (1996-1997) is a"videoportrait" of the very young, filmed dancing in nightclubs.
Shown at the Tate Modern in London, this "videoportrait" was a two channel video installation, which documented a group of teenagers from Liverpool and Zaandam dancing in make shift studios the artist created in each city. All set to a soundtrack of 90's acid house and rave.
"I broke my hip about 15 years ago and started doing self-portraits after swimming in the pool where I was doing physiotherapy. I was fascinated by capturing something unconscious and natural in a photograph, something that was miles away from the boring and predictable businessmen I had until then mostly photographed. I was interested in photographing people at moments when they had dropped all pretence of a pose."
When looking through some of her work and finding out the aims of her images is intriguing to understand how she thinks and lives her work. The idea of photographing reality and not passing judgement, but making the image naturally beautiful by catching the dropped pose or moment of reality hitting is somewhat captivating.
There are so many different types of dance, and with the idea of catching the reality would almost be opposite to what we expect. Many of the photos we see from professional photographers such as Lois Greenfield have exceptional images of dancers on pointe/ballet etc, but these images show a very staged atmosphere. Where as there is always more emotional and feeling that goes into the art of dance.
Some of the images I have experimented in the past like the images on the field, dance studio, or photographing Replica, show the experimental process of lighting and positions. Although the images each give something different, like the shooting images and ones the on the field are quite unexpected especially ones linked to dance.
I plan to photograph different styles or situations of dance, I hope they will show the vulnerability and true self-consciousness of the realm of dance.
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