Anamorphosis

As my daughter started primary school, I was confronted with what I came to think of as the ‘princess phenomenon’: little girls wearing princess dresses. Unsure how to engage with this, I began photographing my daughter and her friends in my studio.

While working, I became aware of the visual models shaping these images – Disney merchandise, ballet poses from children’s coloring pages, poses meant to be colored in but impossible for small bodies to perform. My discomfort grew less from the dresses themselves than from a more fundamental question: who is actually turning these little girls into images? And what is my own position in this as photographer, parent, and spectator?

Rather than focusing on the finished portraits, I shifted the work toward its making. I photographed my notebooks and test prints: I re-photographed my own images. In the resulting close-ups, the girls’ bodies dissolve into grain and pixels. The figures become difficult to read, yet remain unmistakably images.

Published: 2018  Design: In Edition  Essay: Lynn Berger, ‘On Princesses’ Size: 21 cm x 28 cm / 8,27 x 11,02 inch, softcover Pages: 40 ISBN: 978-90824652-2-8 Price: € 24,50 (excl. shipping costs)

Anamorphosis was published in De Correspondent, The Correspondent, Volkskrant Magazine reviewed by Wieteke van Zeil, Antoine Peters made an Expert Photobook Review in the context of Unseen, it was exhibited at ACPA Artspace in exhibition First Person#1 as well as at Tropenmuseum Amsterdam and Wereld Museum Rotterdam in the exhibition What a Genderful world. This publication was made possible with the generous support of Mondriaan Fonds.