Rineke Dijkstra at SFMOMA

Tags:: Culture

Yesterday I was utterly knocked out at the press preview for SFMOMA's new show "Rineke Dijkstra: Retrospective." I'd seen the Dutch photographer's work before in dribs and drabs, but taken as a whole her brand of unflinching portraiture is overwhelming. Dijkstra's photos tend to come in series—adolescents at the beach, a Croatian refugee shot over a span of decades, teenagers in the park—and much of their power comes in a sustained yet varied look at a particular subject. The shots tend to be head-on and massive, at once making heroes of her subjects and opening them up to close scrutiny. Here's a selection of Dijkstra's work, which is on view from February 18th through May 28th in San Francisco. It's her first show of this size in the United States.

— Aaron Britt

Rineke Dijkstra, Olivier, The French Foreign Legion, Camp Général de Gaulle, Libreville, Gabon, June 2, 2002, 2002; chromogenic print; 49 5/8 in. x 42 1/8 in. ; Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York & Paris; © Rineke Dijkstra

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