'For many years, I have been fascinated by portraying the many sides within yourself: hidden beauty, but also the mask that conceals or perhaps covers the vulnerable inner self. Seduction versus deception, concealing versus revealing, and the primordial mother as a symbolic archetype of the woman who represents our innermost foundation.
The theme of duality also ties into this. To me, it represents the double form, the dual nature within ourselves. Something that initially appears beautiful may later prove not to be beautiful at all, or vice versa. This visual deception initially leads the viewer astray. Later, that first truth is replaced by the surprising actual truth—or by the truth as the viewer interprets it, which is different for everyone.
I chose the photograph Nocturne because I see it as a milestone in my photographic work. This photograph embodies everything I explored over the previous three years in developing my concept and translating it into imagery through studio and underwater photography with water reflections. Yet for me, this work also marked a kind of conclusion to that form as it then existed.
Until then, the form I used was usually a clear half-reality for the exterior and a half 'non-reality' for the inner self.
I took this division very literally, photographing one side in the studio and the other in water, where the reflection formed a broken—or damaged—second half and completed the first half into a whole. A literal division, or duality.
The water—the reflection—was really the only element of chance in the images; I staged the rest of the photograph completely. The creative process had already taken place in the initial concept sketches. Most of my later works from 2010-2012 were constructed in that way. I should add that, because I had found a kind of 'method' for myself during this period, I became highly productive over three years. I created about 27 new works.
Even so, as you might expect, I became bored and reached a kind of 'sticking point' because I felt I was beginning to copy myself.
It was a good time for a change—one that, as I clearly realized, would always be fruitful, but was also very exciting. 'Kill your darlings'... Let go of what you hold most dear..., ...and thereby make room for new inspiration and new solutions; moving toward the freedom of infinite possibilities without obstructing yourself with all kinds of self-imposed obligations in the process.'
Text: Dindi van der Hoek
Name: Dindi van der Hoek (1976)
Location: Gouda
Info: www.dindi.nl
