The Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra has taken the formal qualities of the studio portrait from the early part of this century and used this convention of the full length, frontal and centrally composed portrait to photograph individuals. Each photographic portrait has a precise date and location suggesting a conscious evocation of the work of the early twentieth century German photographer August Sander and his project to document Citizens of the Twentieth Century. The photographs stand by themselves and bear no reference to personal circumstances or to specific geographical details of the location. The interpretation of the image lies largely in the psychological interaction between the sitter and the photographer. For Dijkstra's best known series of photographs, an extensive series of beach portraits of teenagers and children taken on beaches all over the world between 1992 to 1996, she has stated that she looked for a certain introversion, or in the case of the teenagers, an unease. This book will survey Dijkstra's recent photographic and video work. The artist: Rineke Dijkstra, born in 1959 in Sittard, Netherlands. Lives in Amsterdam. Dijkstra has received numerous solo exhibitions including those at Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam, Photographers Gallery, London and Hochschule für Graphik und Buchkunst, Leipzig. Her work has also been included in numerous group exhibitions including New Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Venice Biennale.