Rineke Dijkstra (b. 1959)

Maya, Herzliya, Israel, November 21, 1999 and Maya, Induction Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel, April 12, 1999 are two exceptional examples of Rineke Dijkstra’s celebrated series of Israeli soldiers, which were featured in the Netherlands Pavilion at the 2001 Venice Biennale. The Dutch artist has created a series of large-scale, spare, emotionally rich portraits of Israeli women enrolled in the Israel Defense Forces, which have received international praise. By focusing carefully on her subject and excluding background details, Dijkstra emphasizes the individual, capturing visual details that illuminate subtle psychological and emotional states.

In the present work, the artist captures a transition in the life of Maya: before and after national service. In both photographs, Maya is photographed in soft lighting and portrayed with her mouth open, conveying an unclear mood, perhaps of scepticism or hesitation. The young woman looks like a timid teenage girl dressed in someone else’s clothing. In the second portrait, Dijkstra’s lens has portrayed her as being in “in-between”: a mouldable body and identity still responding and changing as a result of her experience. She is not yet a woman, but certainly no longer a child. In Dijkstra’s words, “their lives can go in all directions; they are not completely filled in yet.” Once they complete the rite of passage that is their service in the Israel Defense Forces, they enter into the adult part of their lives with a collective experience they will share with older generations, helping them to define what it is to be an Israeli.