Martine Derks

Naarden Assignment pairs two photographers from different generations. For a few consecutive months, the photographers collaborate on an exhibition for Photo Festival Naarden. The preparation process for the assignment is just as important as the result; the cooperation and interchange between the photographers have a stimulating effect on both.

Koos Breukel (1962) and Martine Derks (1979) were selected for this year’s project. Koos Breukel is one of the Netherlands’ best contemporary portrait photographers. Martine Derks graduated from the Rietveld Academy in 2008. In her work, she responds to other people’s photos by making (minor) changes to create something new.

Breukel and Derks cooperated on a visual dialogue, starting from the photo albums from Breukel’s recently deceased mother. After her death, she left behind seven removal boxes full of photo albums. They were photos taken to cherish the highlights and master reality. For Naarden Assignment, Breukel examined the albums and linked the photos with the many portraits he had made of his mother. He made a selection he considers to be a study. "Evidently the albums she made always played a role in my own creative process," Breukel observed.

Derks used her investigative working method to respond to Breukel’s very personal approach. The result is the installation exhibited here with the glassine end papers from Breukel’s mother’s photo albums. The end papers change into cover sheets: all the people in the underlying photos are portrayed on the glassine sheets. In her approach, Derks was inspired by the properties of the materials. She was also influenced by the words 'I live alone', which appeared to form the title of the exhibition from the very start of their collaboration.

The presentation of the work partly came into being under Saskia Noor van Imhoff’s hands.