Hendrik & Paula Kerstens: Self-Reflective

Fashion
For many years, Kerstens has regularly worked with his daughter Paula as a model for his portraits. He works with household objects such as cake rims, whipped cream syringes or a mop. The portraits play with the Flemish-Dutch portraiture of simplicity and ordinariness.

Series of self-portraits
By now Paula is an adult and an art history graduate. She has further enriched the images with her art historical knowledge. In the process, the influence on her images has become more and more extensive. For example, when photographing, the monitor of the digital camera is pointed at her. Meanwhile, and the title of the exhibition also indicates this, the Paula series is gradually becoming a series of self-portraits.

Collaboration
The exhibition Self-Reflective is a collaboration with Leiden University Libraries, which houses a knowledge and research center for photography. Guest curator is Maartje van den Heuvel, curator of Photography at Leiden University Librarie

credit © Hendrik en Paula Kerstens, Golden Cake Hat, 2022