Dubrovnik, Croatia, July 16, 1996 1996

Rineke Dijkstra made this photograph, Dubrovnik, Croatia, July 16, 1996. It feels like the end of summer, or maybe the beginning. I wonder, how does the process of taking a photograph on that beach in Dubrovnik construct a site of inquiry for the artist and the viewer? I sympathize with Dijkstra, and I imagine what it might have been like to ask this person to stand there, on that beach, and be looked at. I wonder if she, the photographer, and she, the subject, were in some kind of exchange that day. I suppose all encounters are a kind of exchange. The picture plane and the subject's gaze are direct and clear, and for me, this opens a space of imagination around the artwork. Various forms of photography offer different ways of seeing, thinking, and experiencing the world. Artists are in an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity.