Anne Karine Lemstra Photography

“Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.”
Marc Riboud

Ongoing project: I belong here

One hundred children will represent the population of The Hague, the third city in the Netherlands, in all its diversity. These children get the same education, they walk and bike the same streets. They meet at sports clubs, at school, at friends' houses and as they play in the street. They all dream of what they will become when they grow up. Their dreams and ambitions are shaped by the city in which they live as much as the family culture they are raised in. They form the fabric of our future.


In twenty five years they will run this country. Some will become members of parliament, some will be doctors, some will teach the next generation. The colour of their skin, the name they were given at birth or the origins of their (grand)parents should make no difference at all. Just living here should give everybody the same rights and opportunities. They should all be able to say:  "I belong here”.


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Ellen, a conversation in 99 pictures

Looking at this photograph, you wonder: "Who is she?" She might be an Italian contessa, sitting in the living room of her Venetian palazzo amidst the antiques of her forebears. Or is she a French actress, reminiscing about her career and affairs to her biographer in her apartment in Neuilly?


A picture says more than a thousand words, they say. But a picture can also entice the viewer to create their own story. Ellen, a conversation in 99 pictures, is a narration of an evening. Watch as her story unfolds and build your own narrative. They are all true.






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My mother's generation

This year my mother will be 80 years old. I remember my grandmother's 80th birthday. She was a typical woman of her generation: after she married, she stayed at home.
My mother's generation - women born before the end of the second world war - was different, even if society sometimes was not. Born between 1925 and 1945, they were the first generation to take control of their own lives, independent of parents, spouse or society. Some did it quietly, others visibly and actively. They paved the road for their daughters and granddaughters to be whatever they want to be.
And now, at 73+, it is a generation of active and independent women, an example for my daughter and me. Because they faced the challenges and persevered, women today can worry about work-life balance. They can have families, or not, and be ambitious. This series is an ode to strong women everywhere.

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Chrysalis

Sixteen already or sixteen at last? The chrysalis stage of a person. Parents are looking at the remnants of childhood in the face of their children, while the teenagers themselves search for the signs of adulthood. Or is it just the other way round?
Trained by selfies and Instagram, sixteen-year-olds look at their features with the experienced eye of an art critic. Every perceived flaw is commented on, every faintly unflattering or uncharacteristic picture discarded with the face they used to draw at vegetables as a toddler. So how do they look at an image? Out of a series of portraits, the parents choose one shot and the sixteen-year-old chooses one shot.

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Celebrating 50

'I was so much older then, I am younger than that now', (Bob Dylan). Turning 50 I realised that to young people you are old, and to old people, you are still young. It is like being at the airport: you are stationary, yet you feel like you are already on the move - a pleasant limbo - it liberates. One day you feel that you are still trying to be an adult, next day you realise that you know exactly who you are. You have amassed a certain amount of knowledge, yet you are learning every day. It is realising that you are just not that important, but at the same time, you know your own worth. Looking in the mirror you see your parents, but you feel younger than your children. It's the age of balance. This blog celebrates people who were exactly 50 years old at the time the portraits were taken.

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Becca grows

Every year we visit the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. In front of Piet Mondriaan’s last painting, the Victory Boogie Woogie, we measure how much Becca has grown in the last year. Starting in 2006, this year we have made our 17th trip. She is quite literally growing into the painting. After 17 years she regards it as ‘hers’.

Ongoing project (started 2006)


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Kijk op PGB

Jim has Down syndrome. During the week this family live like many Dutch families, but having a little boy with special needs is very intensive. A lot of the attention will always go to Jim. So every Saturday Bianca comes to take care of Jim, With the arrival of Bianca the Saturday of Emily also starts. She can go shopping for clothes or ask her father to build her new bed. The photo series of Jim and Emily shows them during “their” Saturday. Doing what they love best. A family with a special needs child faces many challenges, but a large one is keeping the balance within the family.



This series was part of the Project "Kijk op PGB", curated by Justine de Clercq and Kim Nuijen for I-shoot.

My thanks goes out to Yvette, Herbert, Jim and Emily for sharing their Saturdays!

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