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Underwater, everything is different. Here, the world is fluid, things behave unpredictably; they float and dance, defy gravity. Female bodies in full blossom. Flowers on the cusp of wilting, almost already a memory of what once was beauty. Together, creating a new universe where nothing is exactly what it seems; where everything flows together, and everything is related to everything else.

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Flowers form a common thread throughout Sjoukje’s work. She started off photographing the withering tulips in Amsterdam’s Vondelpark every day, capturing mortality in all its melancholy beauty. She now plants and collects her own blooms, following them from day to day. Waiting for the moment their veins, colours, the light and their shape take on exactly the form she has in mind.

Spread your wings. Follow the sensation of boundlessness; find your way by being free.
Close your eyes and discover the endlessness of colour; be borne along by the light. Dance!

for those to whom
“a touch is a blow,
a sound is a noise,
a misfortune is a tragedy,
a joy is an ecstasy,
a friend is a lover,
a lover is a god,
and failure is death.”

Pearl Buck

Graduation project Photoacademy Amsterdam 2012