Merel Waagmeester was born in 1981 and lives and works in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
She studied fine arts at the Utrecht School of Art and Design and photography at the ‘Facultad de Bellas Artes, Universidad de Granada’, Spain.
Her work revolves around the aesthetics of subtle, researching paradigms of simplicity and modest beauty.
About ‘Works’ – words by Merel Waagmeester:
In response to the complexity and noise of everyday life, I tend to the minimal, to simplicity, images that breathe and are open to interpretation. In my work, I explore a certain emptiness that is not empty, a vital silence. This silence is a theme to which I constantly return, always related to the aesthetics of subtle, simple, and modest beauty.
There is a difference between the direct experience and the interpretation of it and photography consistently appeals to selfless contemplation as such. Any image arises from a certain inspiration from direct observations at the present moment, a process during which the chance, of course, plays an important role. Guided by a longing for unity and simplicity among the abundance that occur in all physical shapes and forms, I am in search of images that represent both ephemerality and timelessness of any given moment. To me, a suitable image is an image that is open and transparent. There is neither beginning nor end. Images that are both recognizable and touch upon the unfathomable mystery of themselves.
