Young people’s culture
Nominee DuPho. SO Award 2022
“As a fourteen-year-old boy, I started photographing the world around me, an urge to capture, curious and always trying to tell stories. Mostly with a soft look; in a recognisable, raw style.
As a professional photographer, I have been taking pictures for over 25 years now, with a great preference for young people. In my (documentary) images, I try to show the vulnerable side of the people portrayed. I am looking for the vulnerability behind the toughness.
That’s what I did with this series of images that I submitted for the SO Awards. A combination of photos of young people, muses and artists, such as Marieke Lucas Rijneveld and Froukje. Hopefully with a recognisable signature. As an autonomous maker, this series stands for something bigger, for my signature and the vulnerability that is also almost always about myself.”
Jury
The series by Martijn van de Griendt is a beautiful reflection of young people’s culture. It is disarming how close the photographer can get. You can look these people in the eye. You are on the boat with them. You are in their bedroom. Everyone is pretty naked but no one has the feeling of being naked, the jury said about Martijn’s work.