Now that summer is underway, I can safely disclose my favorite show of the season: Rineke Dijkstra’s mid-career retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum. Dijkstra, a 53-year-old Dutch photographer, is scarily adept at getting beneath the skin of her sitters to reveal their deepest insecurities. Though her portraits are often of children or adolescents at the height of vulnerability, she occasionally photographs adults who have recently undergone harrowing and/or revelatory experiences. Her most successful adult series include blood-splattered bullfighters who have momentarily escaped death in the ring, women just emerging from childbirth, and Israeli soldiers directly following target practice.
Alongside Dijkstra’s impressive body of still photographs, the exhibition also highlights her recent forays into video. For The Krazyhouse series of 2009, Dijkstra invited dancers to move to music of their choice before her camera. Over the course of a single song, each dancer slowly loosens up (some more than others), and witnessing this release feels at once naughty, voyeuristic, and liberating. The work creates a kinship between dancer and audience, allowing both to let go simultaneously.
One of Dijkstra’s greatest strengths is her ability to turn her specific subjects into universal representations of raw human emotion. The immediacy of her work leaves a powerful imprint upon viewers of all ages. It is a must-see if you find yourself in New York between now and October 8 when it closes.