Artist Feature: Hanneke Van Leeuwen

Jul 19

Written By Amanda Bjorn (Platform Art Curator)

Hanneke van Leeuwen (b. 1984) is a photographer and visual artist based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

“ODE is a body of work that began oscillating at the edges of consciousness in 2017 as little ideas and imaginings at first; reflections and wonderings that crossed my mind when I looked into the mirror, or talked to other women, or spent time alone traversing natural terrains. Confronted with myself and my environment in a way she hadn’t been before, I started to consider what it truly means to be a woman, and slowly but surely, while feeling around the edges of the subject through a process of intuitive visual research, a constellation of images and collages emerged.”

“What binds the works in ODE together are intertwining threads of form and feeling, movement and gesture, history and culture both personal and shared, as well as an overarching preoccupation with the ways that womanhood has always been represented and explored.”

— Hanneke Van Leeuwen

Photography by Hanneke Van Leeuwen

Q: Can you share something you've learned from creating this body of work that would resonate with our community?

HVL: “What is a female body? I’m female but I’ve never seen my body as a female body. I see it as my body. The suit I was born in. I’ve always felt so much pressure to be something because of those words ‘female body’; to be that image or to live up to it. I never quite understood that. My body is mine, it is what it is. I respect it for what it is, in whatever form.”

The ritual of taking pictures hinges on a moment of connection between two people each searching for their own things, intertwining journeys, hinting at the untold tales. ODE is an ongoing photographic project. What is it that binds us?

Due to the epidemic, we are tied to our homes: ‘When I look in the mirror, I see myself. I see someone in search of 'home' while reflecting 'home' in all that she does.’ A new dialogue, a collective research into our place or home in the world in some shape or form.

Q: Tell us about your work process! Do you plan your images ahead or are you more improvisational?

HVL: I meet women in various places, on train stations and bars, in the streets and now more online. I’m drawn to each of them through some inexplicable desire to know more about their stories. The ritual of taking pictures hinges on a moment of connection between two people each searching for their own things, intertwining journeys, hinting at the untold tales. What is it that binds us?

I set up meetings, long weekends, through conversation, food, ritual that we share. What emerges from this? How does this translate into collaboration, symbols, forms, shapes that translate into images? I am also photographing people along the way, situations or places that symbolize my journey. It's not about where the image is taken, a date or a place. It's about a ritual, how it forms us in our daily life. What are the influences of the past, given from one generation to the next and what will be given to our future? The skin is what we live in, to bring conscious awareness to many things we do, feel, and take for granted.

Photography by Hanneke Van Leeuwen

Q: What does being a feminist mean to you?

HVL: When I saw the book, Growing Up Female, a personal photo journal by Abigail Heyman, I understood more of the word feminist, more of myself and the work I was making all these years. This book was published in 1974 for the first time and is still so relevant now. After these decades we still have the same battles and equal rights to fight for. As Abigail wrote: When we are aware, we can decide what we want to keep and what we want to change. We are still growing. For me my work is a framework to raise questions. What do we have in common through our culture, identity, anxiety, fears, struggles, dreams?

Q: Do you have any upcoming events, exhibitions, or news you'd like to share?

HVL: Know your history! It’s great to look at what photographer’s are shooting now, but I think a large part of my understanding of photography came from diving into the past and learning about those whose work came before mine.