Ari Verslius & Ellie Uyttenbroek
Exacitudes
“Exactitudes” (1994-present) is an exploration of how the self is constructed in a social environment as volatile and complex as ours, where a multitude of opposing forces are constantly at play.
Notions such as uniformity and individuality form the core concern of photographer Ari Versluis and profile creator Ellie Uyttenbroek, as our desire to differentiate ourselves is also intertwined with the need to belong to a specific group. Identity, described by many authors as an inherently fragile, fractured, and problematic notion, operates on many levels.
Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek have narrowed their research focus to analyze how identity manifests through shared dress codes and attitudes, which, from a broader perspective, point to clearly differentiated social groups.
Ari Versluis y Ellie Uyttenbroek (Werkendam and Rotterdam, Netherlands.)
Photographer Ari Versluis and stylist Ellie Uyttenbroek have been working together since 1994.
Inspired by a shared interest in the striking dress codes of various social groups, they have systematically documented numerous identities over the past 29 years. Rotterdam’s heterogeneous and multicultural urban scene remains a significant source of inspiration for them, although since 1998 they have also worked in many foreign cities. They call their series Exactitudes: a contraction of exact and attitude.
By recording their subjects in an identical framework, with similar poses and strictly observed dress codes, Versluis and Uyttenbroek offer an almost scientific insight. However, the apparent contradiction between individuality and uniformity is taken to such extremes in their surprising photographic perspective and stylistic analysis of objective appearance that the artistic aspect clearly dominates the purely documentary element.
In collaboration with
