Interview with LIDEWIJ MULDER
When Lidewij Mulder (b.1995, the Netherlands) turned 18, she moved from Groningen to Amsterdam. In her hometown, she always felt secure and safe when surrounded by her family. But after her move to the capital city she felt immensely homesick. Her latest project ‘For Whom I Love’ is an investigation into the acceptance of such a dramatic change in the life of a young adult. The work that she featured in GUP New 2020 captures the ambiguity of her feelings related to the process of moving away from the old security and youthful childhood.
In an interview with GUP, Mulder talks about her family and approach to photography.
What brought you to Amsterdam in the first place and in the past years, have you managed to overcome the feeling of being homesick?
I came to Amsterdam to obtain my bachelor’s degree at The University of Applied Photography. Throughout time, I have - fortunately - managed to deal with my homesickness. I started a part-time job in Amsterdam and met many nice people and built my life here. When I realised that I wasn’t necessarily concerned with the place I came from, but rather for the safe feeling, I suddenly saw the beauty in experiencing homesickness. Partly because of this and the support of my friends in Amsterdam, I now enjoy being in both places.
In your photographs, you mainly portray the members of your family. How was it photographing them? Were they comfortable by being exposed to your camera?
Photographing my family was a challenge! It was mainly due to them being so close to me. Every time, I had to be careful not to fall into a ’trap’, by assuming that everyone would feel the same way as I do with a photo. Of course, the viewer doesn’t know my family like I do. Luckily, I had a lot of help from my graduation supervisor, Francois Hendrickx.
I’m very fortunate to have such a strong bond with my family and our connection made everyone feel relatively comfortable in front of the camera. However, there was one time when my father didn’t feel completely at ease. It was the moment I was photographing my dad while lying on my shoulder. The image didn’t fit with his idea of his role of the family’s ‘protector’ and he, obviously, felt vulnerable in this position.
In ‘For Whom I Love’, you are combining new images with archive which creates a sense of nostalgia. Would you say that the project is a memento for you?
In a way, yes. Although, I never worked on the series with that intention. However, now, I find it very important that my memories are more tangible. The whole series is mainly a visual reminder of how fortunate I am with my family and their role in how I grew up. I didn’t realize that enough until I moved away. I hope I can encourage people in a similar situation to think about this more often.
Do you have any upcoming projects at the moment?
Yes, in the meantime I’ve been working on two series: ‘To Whom It May Concern’ and ’I Am You’.
‘To Whom It May Concern’ combines photography and poetry. The series focuses on Destiny, a 19-year-old law student at the University of Amsterdam. She grew up with her mother and sister in the Southeast side of Amsterdam (also known as ‘De Bijlmer’). In the series, I am capturing her transition from being a girl to a woman, where self-love and prejudice play a central role. In the digital age, appearance seems to be increasingly important, which causes a distorted perception of beauty.
‘I Am You’ is a project about my grandmother. She is very youthful and mischievous and taught me everything about the importance of being independent, especially as a woman. She’s been fighting for equality ever since she was a child, which I truly admire. At the same time, she’s vulnerable, she’s almost 83 and lives alone. However, she would never admit that and still has the mindset of someone close to my own age. A relationship with a grandmother is often very different from a relationship with a mother, of course, but I think it is very valuable.
