Description

Hendrik Kerstens – Paula
Publisher: Thieme Art, 2010
Hardcover, 112 pages, Dutch/English
Size: 30.5×24.5cm
New in seal

This book was the first overview of Kerstens’ photographs.

Since 1995, Hendrik Kerstens has been photographing his daughter, Paula, creating moving portraits in the spirit of Vermeer. Born in The Hague in 1956, Kerstens is a self-taught photographer whose work has been shown in more than 40 exhibitions across Europe and the United States.

His work is in major museum collections and is frequently featured in the New York Times magazine, and has inspired tastemakers as diverse as Elton John and Alexander McQueen. (McQueen used Kerstens’s now-iconic portrait Bag as the invitation for his fall 2009 collection.)

Here, Kerstens lovingly portrays Paula as a self-possessed young woman (with a sense of humor), as well as projecting onto her his fascination with the Dutch Master painters of the 17th century. The resulting portraits seem at once contemporary and timeless. Kerstens beautiful, haunting images, filled with “Dutch light”, express both paternal love and a deep respect for craft.