Bertien Van Manen: Moonshine

Bertien van Manen is a Dutch photographer. She started her career as a fashion photographer, after having studied French and German languages and literature. Inspired by Robert Frank's The Americans she travelled around, photographing what she saw.

USA – 

Spanning almost three decades, ‘Moonshine’ published by MACK, is a portrait of the American Appalachian folk, a mythologised region populated by ‘moonshiners’. Van Manen’s images are defined by a fierce intimacy with her subject, as the viewer teeters on the edge of the frame, perpetually trespassing on private moments: rollicking children practicing handstands on the couch; a kneeling daughter combing the hair of her grandmother.

Van Manen first visited the region in 1985, to the Appalachian areas of Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, returning periodically to visit mining families with whom she lived: the Boggs family with their ten red-haired sons; miners Mavis and Junior. The intergenerational images subtly trace the insidious changes undergone by Appalachia – the slow and steady demise of the mining industry, and the migration of inhabitants from ramshackle wooden cabins to the city, or urban trailer parks. Van Manen intermixes black-and-white images with later colour work – another register of time passing and the inevitability of change.

Moonshine17defBOEK

Photography feature – Bertien van Manen rolled into photography almost by accident, taking pictures of her children with an old camera. As her work became more public she was soon drafted into the world of fashion photography. In 1977 she tired of the industry, and on discovering the documentary photography of Robert Frank and Josef Koudelka, van Manen began to explore the developing relationship between herself and her subjects, keeping a closeness and developing a personal, organic style of photography.

Related Posts

Open Books: Post-War Artist Books at Paris Photo 2014

France –  Each one of the books presented here has been created with the urge to formulate a unique artistic …

Manik Katyal on Nicolo Degiorgis “Hidden Islam”

Italy – Winner of Author Book Award 2014 at the Rencontres d’Arles, self-published book ‘Hidden Islam’ by Fabrica graduate, Photography feature …

“Thierry Bal: a photographic practice in contemporary art.”

United Kingdom – I’m part of a small group of uninvited guests on an abandoned ship off the coast of …

Tomasz Lazar: Theater of Life

Poland – In Ancient Greece people were believed to be only actors, playing roles written by powerful gods. Nowadays, mass …

Lina Hashim: “Unlawful Meetings” – Photographing Young Muslim Couples Sexual Encounter

Denmark –  Like any of the major religions, Islam seeks to regulate sexual relationships between members of their society through …

Arko Datto: CYBER SEX

THIS STORY CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT India –  I had started working on my project CYBERSEX during the months of March …

Ken Schles Invisible City

Ken Schles: “Invisible City” – Portrait of 1980’s Downtown New York

USA –  New York has always been the city of ultimate extremes, extremes in terms of social classes, races, wealth, …

Sofia Valiente Miracle Village

Sofia Valiente: “Miracle Village – Community of Sex Offenders”

USA –  On the outskirts of a rural town in an impoverished area of Palm Beach County, Florida, lies the …

Diana Matar: “Evidence” – Photographing Six years of Political Disappearance

Libya –  Years ago Photography feature –  Diana Matar‘s father-in-law, a Libyan opposition leader, was kidnapped by the Egyptian secret …