ABOUT THE PROJECT

“The (social media) Project" is a series of portraits made by Sander Dekker from 2011 to 2019, the heyday of social media. His subjects are never his friends or acquaintances, but people he finds on social media. He chooses people he admires as his subjects: outgoing, spontaneous, and always a bit eccentric. He contacts them to ask if he can photograph them at home, then books a ticket and gets on the plane. Raging through their house together, Dekker captures the high energy of that first encounter. A shoot usually last for an hour or so, before he’s off to his next visit. Meeting his models just before the session and working without a preconceived concept, creates the spontaneity that is distinctive of Dekker’s work. It results in great compositions and surprising crops that reflect the freedom and expressiveness of the people in front of his camera. When trying to capture their personalities, it’s almost as if Dekker hopes that these qualities will rub off on him. Yet after all these years, he prefers to stay behind the camera, where he can admire their eccentric beauty and pay tribute to them through his pictures.