Janina Wick (born 1976)
They seem cool, alluring, slightly absent, and very intentional in their self-presentation. Yet shimmering behind each façade we catch glimpses of fragility, vulnerability, and insecurity – girls who are physically almost adults but not yet mentally secure, and still in search of their own identity. These young adolescents appear in Janina Wick’s series “Thirteen” in sensitive portrayals of a state between childish unselfconsciousness and self-confident femininity. The photographs reveal a fascinating paradox: we can read something in their faces and bodies that they themselves do not yet know, but that they already embody nevertheless. Wick’s images are a balancing act between documentary and staged photography. They oscillate between an “authentic moment” and a situation where the young girls are the choreographers of their own self-portrayal. This mixture lends the images a natural tranquility that at the same time seems staged. As with August Sanders’ sociological photographs from the 19th century and the psychological portraits of contemporary Dutch photographer Rineke Dijkstra, Wick poses the question of the greatest possible authenticity – of how and when people are most “themselves.”
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