News

Judith van IJken publicly defends her doctoral research project entitled 'The Situative Portrait'. On November 5 at 10.30, Van IJken will present her artistic work for the doctoral examination committee in the exhibition ‘The Situative Portrait’. Later that day, at 14.30, she will publicly defend her dissertation in the Academy Building at Leiden University.

What do we ‘actually’ see in a photographic portrait? While it is widely understood that portraits are not truthful representations of a person, this insight is often suspended when looking at one. The long history of photography as a means of identification may play a role in this suspension of disbelief. Portraits are still easily taken as reflections of reality, and the fact that they are social constructions tends to disappear from view.

This research project begins with the social situation in which a portrait is made. Photographer, sitter, and anticipated spectators – physically absent yet influential – each play a role in this process. Through an interplay between practice and theory, Van IJken explores what these three participants want and do. From this emerges the concept of the “situative portrait”: an approach to portrait photography that emphasizes the context of creation and the network of actions and interactions from which the image arises.

‘The Situative Portrait’ is about the interpretation of photographic portraits – what can and cannot be seen in them. In an age of AI and surveillance, where faces are reduced to data, the situative portrait is an exercise in resistance, a reminder that critical engagement with images is essential.

PUBLIC DEFENSE JUDITH VAN IJKEN
5 November at 10.30
Leiden Art Hub
Papegaaisbolwerk 20, Leiden

5 November at 14.30
Great Auditorium
Academy Building, Leiden University
Rapenburg 73, Leiden

EXHIBITION THE SITUATIVE PORTRAIT
6 – 8 November
Opening hours: 13.00 – 17.00
Leiden Art Hub
Papegaaisbolwerk 20, Leiden

SUPERVISORS
Prof. Dr. Janneke Wesseling, Professor Emeritus in Practice and Theory of Research in the Visual Arts, Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Leiden University
Prof. Dr. Bart Verschaffel, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Architecture & Urban Planning, Ghent University
Dr. Florian Cramer, reader in 21st Century Visual Culture / Autonomous Practices, Willem de Kooning Academy