L: Chair, 1994 R: Sunburnt, 2001 (from “Paula Pictures”)
© Hendrik Kerstens

When Dutch photographer Hendrik Kerstens decided to dedicate himself entirely to the medium of photography, he turned to a model very close to him: his daughter Paula. “He wanted to document all the important moments in her life, to ‘be there’, to capture something of the fleeting moments that fade from memory all too quickly,” his statement reads.

Some time ago, when I first saw Hendrik’s work, I was instantly struck by the resemblance his photographs have to 17th century Dutch portrait painting, particularly that of Johannes Vermeer.

Hairnet, 2000 (from “Paula Pictures”)
© Hendrik Kerstens

Hendrik writes about this,

One day Paula came back from horseback riding. She took off her cap and I was struck by the image of her hair held together by a hair-net. It reminded me of the portraits by the Dutch masters and I portrayed her in that fashion. After that I started to do more portraits in which I refer to the paintings of that era. The thing that fascinates me in particular is the way a seventeenth-century painting is seen as a surface which can be read as a description of everyday life as opposed to the paintings of the Italian Renaissance, which usually tell a story. Northern European painting relies much more on craftsmanship and the perfect rendition of the subject. The use of light is instrumental in this.

Visit his website to see more from the series.