Hendrik & Paula Kerstens: Self-Reflective

A plastic shopping bag, a hoover hose or a piece of aluminium foil. A cake border becomes a collar, a lampshade a headgear. Hendrik Kerstens plays with the characteristics of seventeenth-century Dutch portrait painting, in which the everyday was elevated to art.

The photographs Kerstens took of his daughter Paula to record her childhood have become world-famous icons. The series in which she takes centre stage is increasingly about the time-honoured game in front of the mirror, constantly trying out new looks, styles and roles. Paula, now an adult, is now director of her self-image. And the Kerstens, now a family business, are still developing every day.

Texts by Maartje van den Heuvel & Paula Kerstens. Edited by Maartje van den Heuvel.

©Photographs Hendrik & Paula Kerstens