Group Presentation Reflections

For the presentation on an artist which we chose to research and present in front of the class was Rieneke Dijsktra and specifically her work 'Beach Portraits'. This award winning work was outstandingly recognised by many top practitioners. I think that everyone in the group had a fair amount of knowledge on her work, they seemed to be interested and it was actually a joy to present her work, it powerful imagery. I missed the meeting for us to meet and discuss the research and what not, but I made sure I spoke through messenger and knew what I had to do and where I should direct my research. I was presenting the 3/4th topic (How does ‘beach portraits’ compare to Dijkstra’s other work?) 
  I looked into her work extensively using photo books, theory books and articles, seeing her work from many point of views allowed me to conclude a definitive presentation speech. I picked up on the various platforms she creates on, using multimedia for a lot of work, but also the level of intellect she is creating on, she is suggesting very deep archetypes in her work such as the beach portrait image, "The Birth of Venus is a painting by the Italian artist Sandro Botticelli probably made in the mid 1480s. It depicts the goddess Venus arriving at the shore after her birth, when she had emerged from the sea fully-grown. The painting is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy." Her beach portraits are mentioned to be reconstructions of this painting, well at least hinting to it, and I believe this is true, she is linking the progression of the image of the woman, during the maturity stage in life. Doing this she directly creates these beautiful images in which the image of beauty transcends the subjects. This really stands out to me though, whist looking back through the images I had chosen for the book, I realised a perspective of certain photographic styles, including Reineke Dijkstra when looking at the beach portraits I had uncovered of my family hence the Front cover of the book is one similar to her 'Beach Portraits series', But what it was is that I recognised beauty in the images my family had kept under our beds and in the loft etc, they are very powerful and, I basically used this book as a channel to allow the power of photography become recognised as a reflection on ourselves as individuals, as family and as a society.