Rotterdam-based photographer Ari Versluis & and stylist Ellie Uyttenbroek have worked together since October 1994. Inspired by a shared interest in the striking dress codes of various social groups, they have systematically documented numerous identities over the last 12 years. Rotterdam’s heterogeneous, multicultural street scene remains a major source of inspiration for Versluis & Uyttenbroek, although since 1998 they have also worked in many cities abroad.
They call their series exactitudes: a contraction of ‘exact’ and ‘attitude’.
By registering their subjects in an identical framework, with similar poses and a strictly observed dress code, Versluis and Uyttenbroek provide an almost scientific, anthropological record of people’s attempts to distinguish themselves from others by assuming a group identity. The apparent contradiction between individuality and uniformity is, however, taken to such extremes in their arresting objective-looking photographic viewpoint and stylistic analysis that the artistic aspect clearly dominates the purely documentary element.
Wim van Sinderen
Senior curator Museum of Photography, The Hague
