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Rineke Dijkstra (Dutch, b. 1959)
Nida, Lithuania (Brigita), July 30, 2000
Chromogenic print, 59-7/8 x 50-3/8 inches
Museum purchase in memory of Alice R. and Sol B. Frank and
the Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Art Purchase Fund 2001.20
©Rineke Dijkstra

Rineke Dijkstra is an internationally renowned Dutch photographer who makes life-size, color documentary photographs of people. With a quiet, intense concentration, her photographs focus on humans in transition, revealed in a moment of vulnerability. The photograph here is set in a verdant park and pine forest in Nida, Lithuania. Brigita, a pubescent girl about 12 years old, gazes directly at us, engaging the viewer with a slightly self-conscious, awkward pose. She is rendered in a moment of transition, half-teenager in her dress, while still child-like with her long braids and undeveloped body. "I try to capture something universal but something personal at the same time. And I'm very keen on details," explains the artist, "like a gaze or a certain gesture."

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