Amsterdam portraits: Bastiaan Woudt

Abstract

The young Dutch photographer Bastiaan Woudt (° 1987) is already at the top of the world of contemporary photography. He has had several solo exhibitions and his work has been shown at various international photography fairs and festivals. In 2015 he was named 'New Dutch Photography Talent' and in 2016 the British Journal of Photography designated him as one of the 'ones to watch'. In 2017, as a young, talented artist, he received the special Van Vlissingen Art Foundation Grant. His very first book, Mukono (Hannibal, 2016) immediately grew into a collector's item. For his new publication, 'Amsterdam Portraits', he portrays the diversity of 'the Amsterdammer' in his unmistakable style. Woudt traveled around the city in search of the most unusual faces and portrayed them sharply, almost abstractly and with great attention to detail. Woudt likes classical subjects that have a distinct place in art history, such as portrait and nude. As a photography historian, he punctuates his work with references to important periods in photography history, such as surrealism and documentary photography of the sixties and seventies. By experimenting with both his camera and image processing techniques, surprising images are created, with which he gives a highly personal twist to classical expectations.