Rineke Dijkstra is best known for a series of beach portraits, candid shots of individual bathers at the water's edge, which she took while traveling through the United States, England, Poland, and Belgium. In 1996 she photographed street children in Ghana for UNICEF, and the following year her work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of its New Photography series. Her recent video portraits of teenagers at schools and nightclubs in England and in the Netherlands--including The Buzz Club/Mystery World (1996-1997)--have been shown at various venues, including the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and the 1998 São Paulo Bienal. Isolated from their peers, her adolescent subjects seem visibly hyperaware of their bodies and their vulnerability as the object of the camera's gaze. The artist describes these pieces as "not really about specific persons but about a psychological encounter in a more general sense." The Buzz Club/Mystery World, the artist's first video piece, was made at dance clubs in Liverpool and Zaandam. Dijkstra videotaped young clubbers in a makeshift studio right off the main dance floor. While never giving precise direction, she did offer them certain scenarios: "Imagine you want to dance, you are at the edge of the dance floor, and you move a bit, but not really..." Not much happens: her subjects confront or avoid the camera's gaze, sway to the beat, blow smoke rings, or suddenly let loose with frenetic dancing. It is a spectacle of the ordinary. Entirely mesmerizing, the large-scale projection envelops us in the world of teenagers struggling to define themselves and project a certain self-image, seeking conformity with their friends but simultaneously aiming for the distinctly individual.
