honorable mention
Judith Minks netherlands
title
Hotel Room
Anyone who has ever worked in a hotel knows how different guests can leave their room. And neat or messy, tidy or not - every room tells afterwards a story about the people who were present.
In her youth, photographer Judith Minks worked every summer vacation as a chambermaid at Hotel de Wadden on Vlieland. Every day she saw the traces of lives that had taken place within the four walls for a short time.
She wrote the stories about those lives in her head and then forgot about them. Until these memories came back after several hotel visits related to her photography work.
She recreated a hotel room in her studio in Harlingen. Bed and bedside tables; toilet and bathroom; tables, chairs and wardrobe - she fitted everything. The specific hotel attributes came from WTC Westcord in Leeuwarden (part of the hotel chain of which De Wadden started): the safe, the telephone, the information folder, the towels and soaps, the cards for the room door.
And then she let her imagination play with her memories and staged the hotel scenes that she dreamed of in her childhood on Vlieland. She had the role of the guests played by amateur models that she found in her hometown of Harlingen. And in one case: by herself.
Minks creates cinematic photos, staged in her studio with elaborately detailed sets of daily life in created interiors, a Hotel room or even a stable with a rather alienated and uneasy quietude. "I have always been fascinated by the still image because you can take the time to discover every detail."
With her rather alienated and uncomfortable images with their immaculately staged lighting and sombre, solitary figures, it becomes clear that Gregory Grewdson and Edward Hopper are both great examples for her. The images Minks creates are based on her own memories, experiences and fantasies.
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entry description
A shirt over the back of a chair, a forgotten summer dress in the wardrobe, a half-read book under the bed, the battlefield of bed linen and towel. Everything is possible. Everything tidy, everything neatly folded, all lights off, the drawers and cupboard doors neatly closed. All that is possible too.Anyone who has ever worked in a hotel knows how different guests can leave their room. And neat or messy, tidy or not - every room tells afterwards a story about the people who were present.
In her youth, photographer Judith Minks worked every summer vacation as a chambermaid at Hotel de Wadden on Vlieland. Every day she saw the traces of lives that had taken place within the four walls for a short time.
She wrote the stories about those lives in her head and then forgot about them. Until these memories came back after several hotel visits related to her photography work.
She recreated a hotel room in her studio in Harlingen. Bed and bedside tables; toilet and bathroom; tables, chairs and wardrobe - she fitted everything. The specific hotel attributes came from WTC Westcord in Leeuwarden (part of the hotel chain of which De Wadden started): the safe, the telephone, the information folder, the towels and soaps, the cards for the room door.
And then she let her imagination play with her memories and staged the hotel scenes that she dreamed of in her childhood on Vlieland. She had the role of the guests played by amateur models that she found in her hometown of Harlingen. And in one case: by herself.
about the photographer
Judith Minks (1969) After 18 years as a optician, she was completely done with this profession. “I decided to explore my fascination with the still image.” Minks started with the FotoAcademie Amsterdam and graduated cum laude. “I like to have complete control over everything I do and this also applies to my photography.” It is therefore logical that she photographs in a studio.Minks creates cinematic photos, staged in her studio with elaborately detailed sets of daily life in created interiors, a Hotel room or even a stable with a rather alienated and uneasy quietude. "I have always been fascinated by the still image because you can take the time to discover every detail."
With her rather alienated and uncomfortable images with their immaculately staged lighting and sombre, solitary figures, it becomes clear that Gregory Grewdson and Edward Hopper are both great examples for her. The images Minks creates are based on her own memories, experiences and fantasies.
back to gallery