Our grid / growing between the lines

Based on this concept, I received the photography commission from the Stadsarchief Amsterdam in 2016.

Various locations across IJburg served as the setting for different groups of teenagers, each photographed during sessions of roughly one hour. The locations were carefully scouted in advance. Within each group, one central character takes the lead. During that hour, friends gradually join the scene with their scooters, bicycles, skateboards and other everyday attributes. Through school or social media they were asked to come to this specific location at a set time. As the photographer, I mainly connect with the central figure while allowing the friends to move freely within the space. The main character acts as the pivot of the image. Through lighting and positioning — sometimes apart from the group, sometimes in front or behind — the emphasis remains on him or her.

These are locations where, at first glance, you would not expect to see many people. I deliberately seek out this slightly surreal effect, as a prelude to the rapid growth of the youth population in the neighbourhood that was only just beginning to unfold.