Erica Davis:
Annemiek (I wanna be with you)
1997
The focal point in any image is the central point of interest or attention, the general spot to which the eyes gravitate when one is viewing said image. The mode of photographer Rineke Dijkstra’s work is portraiture; capturing portraits of her subjects meant to, “encourage us to focus on the exchange between photographer and subject and the relationship between viewer and viewed” (http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/on-view/rineke-dijkstra-a-retrospective). In such photographs the ability of the viewer to see right into the face of the viewed creates a focus right of their facial features, and most specifically into their eyes and the emotions they express. Walking through the fourth floor of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s exhibition Rineke Dijkstra: A Retrospective many of the images and video presentations the lined the all white walls of the museum certainly allowed patrons to see right into the faces of Dijkstra’s subjects. In trying to portray one viewer’s experience of this exhibition to someone who has not have the privilege of visiting I ask that you look at these portraits, specifically at what sticks out about them, and tell me the emotions you see. Bare in mind that these are stills from a video of a girl, named Annemiek, who is currently engaged in an activity. Tell me, what is this young girl doing?
Stills from Annemiek (I wanna be with you), 1997. These stills are in sequence.
The video is streaming against the museum wall with two pairs of headphones connected for viewers to pick up when the suspense of finding out whether or not their theory of what this young girl, the only person in the frame although she seems to be looking at someone else periodically, is up to becomes too much to bear. After finding out that my own guess was so far from correct, I followed the “disappointment loves company” moniker and stood idly by listening intently into the conversations of other museum-goers to see if anyone got even remotely close to guessing without reading the description of the piece or picking up the headphones.
The answers that I heard repeated were that the eyes of this young girl, which were one of the darkest elements of the photo, contrasted with a stark white background and the subject’s light hair and skin, looked angry and afraid. Attendees predicted, out loud, that this young girl was arguing with someone, or maybe being interviewed and asked questions she wasn’t entirely comfortable with. Was that discomfort in her eyes, maybe a twinge of guilt behind that? As one by one people walked over to the video, I watched faces fall and confusion settle as we each, individually and together all at once, were surprised to find that this girl was lip-synching along to one of her favorite songs, the Backstreet Boys “I Wanna be With You.”
The expressive face of this young girl displayed a wide array of different emotions, none of which seemed to be relatable to the experience of being asked to mouth along to the words of a favorite song, a love song in fact. This young girl’s perfectly combed back hair, and the lines of worry that demonstrate on her moving forehead that demonstrate the experiences of emotions that should be beyond her years capture a glimpse into the way in which this particular piece does wonders to show us all that looks can be deceiving. The white turtleneck and button down shirt that Annemiek is wearing along with the deal of concern that appears to pepper he facial expressions scream a story of a girl with all the problems in the world who is having difficulty coping, and instead we are watching a little girl just being playful, mouthing along to the words of a song she likes. What we see is not necessarily what we get out of this piece. Dijkstra’s intention is to capture the natural and raw state of those that she photographs. The stills of this video do wonders to demonstrate that there’s more to the story than what’s just in front of you, sometimes what we are experiencing isn’t something that a person can just read with one glance into our faces.
