Rineke Dijkstra Quotes

A photo is always a kind of lie. Truth is only present for a matter of a fraction of a second.

For me it is essential to understand that everyone is alone. Not in the sense of loneliness, but rather in the sense that no one can completely understand someone else. I know very well what Diane Arbus means when she says that one cannot crawl into someone else's skin, but there is always an urge to do so anyway. I want to awaken definite sympathies for the person I have photographed.

As a photographer you enlarge or emphasize a certain moment, making it another reality.

For me, the importance of photography is that you can point to something, that you can let other people see things. Ultimately, it is a matter of the specialness of the ordinary.

I felt that the beach portraits were all self-portraits. That moment of unease, that attempt to find a pose, it was all about me.

I am interested in the paradox between identity and uniformity, in the power and vulnerability of each individual and each group. It is in this paradox that I try to visualize by concentrating on poses, attitudes, gestures, and gazes.

I do think that my work has gotten calmer, and that the violence of some of the earlier series was necessary to reach the higher degree of concentration in the later ones.

I don't need to know anything about the people I photograph, but it's important that I recognize something about myself in them.