Meet Aaliyah, age 9.

"Do you not know how to smile?"

Today I went back to my home in Newbury to stay with my mum for a few nights and was so pleased when my Grandma showed up with my niece Aaliyah. I have recently spent a lot of time in the library researching photographers and have really enjoyed looking at the work of Rineke Dijkstra. (do not ask me how to pronounce this name)

Dijkstra is primarily known as a portrait photography who tends to only photograph people under the age of 25. I am interested in her idea that her portraits are a reflection of how we present ourselves to the world. The subject's she often chooses to photograph haven't formed their adult personas yet and are therefore self conscious about how they are seen.

My favourite work by her is the Beach Portraits. Here Dijkstra photographs young children/teenagers at their most vulnerable moments, in a public space, half clothed in bathing suits wet and tired from swimming. The idea that they are too tired to pose and therefore not in control of their pose or how they look.

I was excited to take Aaliyah's picture, she acted so serious and I found it very hard to get a smile out of her. She is a very shy character and can be quite awkward because of this. I felt Aaliyah felt most comfortable doing this "serious, sarcastic" expression and instead of just forcing her to smile I just let her pose how she wished to. 

And of course if Aaliyah had agreed to let me photograph her I had to agree to let her play with the camera to.