Rineke Dijkstra Hasselblad Award Winner 2017

GOTHENBURG, Sweden, 8th March, 2017 - The Hasselblad Foundation is pleased to announce that Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra is the recipient of the 2017 Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography to the sum of SEK 1,000,000 (approx. EUR 100,000). The award ceremony will take place in Gothenburg, Sweden, on October 9, 2017. A symposium will be held on October 10 in honor of Rineke Dijkstra, followed by the opening of an exhibition of her work at the Hasselblad Center, as well as the launch of the book Rineke Dijkstra – Hasselblad Award 2017. 

The Foundation’s citation regarding the Hasselblad Award Winner 2017, Rineke Dijkstra: 

»Rineke Dijkstra is one of the most significant contemporary artists working in photographic portraiture. Her large-scale photographs focus on the
thematics of identity, typically capturing her subjects at moments of transition or vulnerability. Working in series, Rineke Dijkstra’s images recall the visual acuity of seventeenth-century Dutch portraiture, offering intimate portrayals of her sitters whilst also suggesting the situated aspects of their being. Rineke Dijkstra’s investigations in portraiture also include video. Her fixed-camera video studies yield images that appear to be moving photographs, revolutionizing our understanding of the fluid boundary between the still and moving images.« 

The Hasselblad Award Jury that submitted its nomination to the Hasselblad Foundation’s Board of Directors, consisted of:

Duncan Forbes, Chair
Curator and writer based in London and Los Angeles, and Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Modern and Contemporary Culture, University of Westminster, London

Jennifer Blessing
Senior Curator, Photography, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Simon Njami
Curator and Writer, Paris

Esther Ruelfs
Head of Photography and New Media Department, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Mark Sealy
Curator and Director, Autograph ABP, London

»Rineke Dijkstra’s photographs and films speak brilliantly to the intricacy of the portrait image: its embodiment in time; its capacity to reveal history; the contingency of the act of exchange between sitter, photographer and spectator; and, ultimately, photography’s revelation of the self. At a moment when the portrait image dissipates itself in an economy of narcissism and fractal celebrity, Rineke Dijkstra reminds us of the photographic portrait’s public potential,« notes Duncan Forbes, Chair of the Jury for the Hasselblad Award 2017.

About the Hasselblad Foundation
The Hasselblad Foundation was established in 1979 under the terms of the last will and testament of Erna and Victor Hasselblad. The purpose of the Foundation is to promote scientific education and research in photography and the natural sciences. The Foundation’s annual international award for outstanding achievements in photography, awarded in 2017 to Rineke Dijkstra, is considered one of the most prestigious photography awards worldwide.