Mascha Joustra

Photographer
    
ruby fruit
Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Nationality: dutch
Biography: Mascha Joustra graduated in May 2015 at the Fotoacademie Amsterdam, specializing in documentary and portrait series. She graduated with a cum laude recommendation on a large series of photographs bundled in a voluminous photo book called... MORE
Public Story
ruby fruit
Copyright Mascha Joustra 2024
Updated Jun 2017
Location amsterdam
Topics Fine Art, Photography, Photojournalism, Street
As a former inhabitant of Amsterdam, I never was interested in walking through the city’s red light district since this area was already there for a long time and it did not appeal to me a lot. In april 2015 during a Masterclass by Anders Petersen I returned and was interested now in ‘examine' some vibes from this area. 

I am attracted by the lightning in this area as well as by the vibrance which goes along. But more I am observing the behavior of (mostly) male tourist, who regard the red light district as an adventure park during their occasional breaks in Amsterdam.  Intentionally I chose for a way of photographing that the persons involved would be almost unrecognizable, and at the same time to create a sort of fluid interpretation of this area avoiding the scenes to be too harsh or even 'cheap'.

Also I observed the visiting males changing into a sort of 'hunters', looking for (forbidden) fruits. Even though the area is very touristic I feel a change of mood as soon as you enter, it does become more darwinistic in terms of sexual sense.

Obviously my opinion is very much present in this series, how mankind is still behaving when it comes to visit places like these has always interested me. Also the final image of the lion which is almost at the entrance of this area to me represents not only Amsterdam but as well the male presence in this area.

In 2015 a first part of the series have been curated by Niccolò Hébel and exhibited at Galerie Beaurepaire, Paris

Every time I visit Amsterdam I am drawn to this area since it still asks me to return.
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