Dark Grapes in a metal bowl Photograph - Limited Edition of 7

DIANA MONKHORST works as a full-time artist with photography as her medium. She graduated from the Rietveld Academy with a specialty in portraiture. From an initial love of portraits, her interests have turned more and more toward still life, but the approach remains the same. Diana works to get as close as possible to the essence of the chosen subject. In her photography she often uses dark backgrounds, creating similar effects as the old masters; namely, the chosen subject is made visible in all its naked beauty. The wondrous power of Diana’s art is twofold: on the one hand, it conveys beauty and strength and nudges us to think deeply; on the other hand, it effortlessly brings happiness to anyone who looks at it. Diana is a photographer who follows her intuition to create her artwork as she works, without envisioning the result aforehand. She seeks the magic of light, so she says, to reveal all of the beauty life has to offer. All the beauty of the inanimate and of daily life grasps her attention. It is this beauty that inspires her to create her unique photographic still lifes. Her work conveys a sense of melancholy, perhaps unconsciously, related to the conviction thatthese moments, in their brief existence, represent the transient fragile nature of life. This melancholy makes her images strong but still so soft. This holds in particular for her images of people in which she captures a feeling of resignation, a stillness that forces the viewer to hold their gaze. Diana grew up on a barge (inland vessel), sailing over the rivers and canals in countries such asBelgium, France and Switzerland and of course in her own country The Netherlands. She experienced many of these magical moments, still without a camera, watching life on land pass by, learning to recognize the special moments as they manifest themselves.