From Graphic Design to Photographic Narratives: Neeltje de Vries's Journey

Amsterdam based photographer Neeltje de Vries crafts timeless narratives of women from the present, past and future, like film stills, where nudity is a functional artistic choice that accentuates not only purity and a connection with nature but also literally liberates. Neeltje’s women aren’t trying to please the viewer. These women are, and they are sufficient unto themselves. They don’t want anything from you, regardless of what you want, are equally untamed and untamable.

Neeltje not only breaks free from the traditional way women are looked at, she also demonstrates that women are so much more than what they’ve been reduced to by the dominant male gaze and centuries-old stereotyping in a patriarchal society. Above all, she offers her unique perspective on what it means to be a woman, on what it means to break free from expectations, prejudices, roles, and patterns.

Characteristic are the geometric figures and cropping, stemming from her past as a graphic designer. Searching for the right balance, she plays with lines, shapes and frames, often incorporating the models.

"The women in the photographs look like me. I use their bodies to translate something that lives inside me. How I experience being a woman." Neeltje De Vries