VANJA DIMITROVA – DREAMERS AND DROWNERS
Vanja Dimitrova’s (b. 1974, Macedonia) is an Amsterdam-based photographer. She has studied Audio Visual Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and did her Master of Fine Arts at the Sandberg Institute. Due to her background in film and video, her photographs have a cinematic feel regardless of whether they are staged or documentary snapshots. In her series ‘Dreamers and Drowners’, Dimitrova captures the everyday life of various children and teenagers in order to create a portrait of a generation that is growing up in the 21st century.
Her imagery is primarily shot in colour and despite documenting the everyday and ordinary, there is also an apparent sense of strangeness and sadness lurking among her photographs. Dimitrova’s documentation is not only focusing on the mundane encounters but additionally, on the uncertainty surrounding the generation’s future. Some of her subjects are in a transitional stage of adolescence who particularly point to this ambiguity surrounding their future prospects. Now, more than ever, society is shaken by the outbreak of the coronavirus, heavily impacting global economics and social life. ‘Dreamers and Drowners’ reflects on this in-between state of contemporary youth where their dreams have to be compromised and shaped by the upcoming developments. Suspended in an honest moment of hesitation, Dimitrova’s photographs embody the current state of being.