HIGHLIGHTS International Art Fair Munich 2022

Ira Stehmann Fine Art shows a solo exhibition by Dutch photographer Neeltje de Vries (b. 1976 in Istanbul). Her subject is the female figure, not as an object of the gaze but as a self-determined subject. Her predominantly black-and-white images show women who withdraw from the viewer: they rarely seek eye contact, need no approval, and are not made to please.

Every photograph carries traces of a self-portrait, found in memory, emotion, and a quiet inner resilience. “The women in my photographs represent a part of myself,” says de Vries. The nudity that runs through her work is, for de Vries, a metaphor for freedom.

De Vries works digitally and almost exclusively with natural light, preferring direct sunlight to artificial sources, even where it casts hard-edged shadows. More than fifteen years as a graphic designer have left their mark on her images to this day: clear compositions, precise lines, a carefully calibrated balance of closeness and distance. She deliberately does not work in closed series. Each photograph is meant to stand on its own.