Voyeuristic Street Style Portraits of Teens by Winter Vandenbrinks

“I was always keen to have a really nice hairdo,” says Winter Vandenbrink, recalling her teenage years in the Netherlands. “I was always in the mall, hanging out and listening to The Cure and Depeche Mode. That’s where I would go to show off my hair.” Vandals, Vandenbrink's new monograph on portraits of urban youth also focuses on this leisure activity, seen by the photographer in places where people don't want to go, tourist destinations and busy shopping streets (read: Dam Square, the Duomo, Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus).

In his photographs, sartorial observations characterized by tight framing and high resolution, Vandenbrinks’ subjects wear a variety of athletic, designer, and streetwear brands. They pair The North Face with Nike and layer Louis Vuitton with Adidas, often with a phone or a soda, sometimes a motorcycle or a DSLR or an arm in a cast. Admired from afar and shot with a telephoto lens, this distinctive shooting style is largely a byproduct of Vandenbrink’s introversion, but is also partly the result of a teenage reluctance to wear his glasses. “My parents wouldn’t let me wear contacts, and the only things I could see were up close,” he explains. And so began a fascination with fabrics, skin, hair—all of which I think has something to do with it, too.

Recently published as a 400-page volume by IDEA, Vandalsthe series, has been a part of Vandenbrink's life for almost 12 years (an earlier, lighter version of the title was published by tudes in 2021). At first, it was just for me [looking at] “I didn’t know how these kids acted and dressed, but little by little it took over my fashion work and I started to become more of a documentary photographer,” he explains. “Since COVID, my Instagrams have become more popular and now, when I post a recognizable image, like a face, after a day or a few weeks, someone will say, ‘Hey, that’s me.’ It’s cool.” to stay in touch. The book is accompanied by additional text by Sean Thor Conroe.

In his heart, Vandals examines youth uniforms across Europe, and there are echoes of Hans Eijkelbooms People of the 21st century and Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroem Accuracies within the broader social framework of the project. Vandenbrink, however, is more informed by cinema, he notes, citing directors Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Larry Clark as examples, while his experience in the fashion industry has been another catalyst. It certainly comes from my work in fashion [this interest in youth culture]inspired by people like Raf Simons and his book The Fourth Sex: The Extremes of Adolescencehe said. At first I started photographing all walks of life, but I quickly focused on this group, especially the boys, because I can really see better what they are like, the possibility, or impossibility, of creating their own individuality. I also photograph girls, but it's less obvious to me.

Call the project previously Street workThe book's nickname came a few years ago via Vandenbrink's boyfriend, who gave her a copy of the German philosopher Theodor Adornos Minimal morality; Vandals is an essay from 1945. The text is actually about the saturation of capitalism and consumerism, and that helped shape the work. I had the subject, it was already about young people and consumerism, but the text helped me aim my camera, he suggests, also referring to 1914: One or more wolvesby French philosophers Flix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze.

It's still a very active project (the last photos in the book were taken just a month before its publication, while Vandenbrink has already taken others since its release), and the photographer is eager to see where it might go next. I don't see [the book] As a conclusion, it's so funny. So I'll continue, but maybe it will be different. For example, I did a shoot with a boy who ended up on my Instagram, it's quite an interesting series, maybe I'll make it public in October, he envisions. It's a natural thing, ultimately, my camera is like one of those spiritual sticks that point to the water, like a magic wand. I'm easily attracted to things I want to capture.