Marco van Duyvendijk
LUMCdiversity
Marco van Duyvendijk (1974) travels to Eastern Europe and Asia for his portrait photography, including Romania, Mongolia, China, and Japan. His images emerge from personal encounters, as he takes the time to get to know people before photographing them. He previously brought this work together in the book Eastward Bound.
Seijin no Hi is Japan’s Coming of Age Day, celebrated in January, when young people who have reached adulthood are honored in a ceremony. Shichi-Go-San is a centuries-old Shinto festival held in November. Its name refers to the ages of seven, five, and three, when parents take their children to a shrine to pray for a long and healthy life.
…Marco van Duyvendijk (1974) travels to Eastern Europe and Asia for his portrait photography, including Romania, Mongolia, China, and Japan. His images emerge from personal encounters, as he takes the time to get to know people before photographing them. He previously brought this work together in the book Eastward Bound.
Seijin no Hi is Japan’s Coming of Age Day, celebrated in January, when young people who have reached adulthood are honored in a ceremony. Shichi-Go-San is a centuries-old Shinto festival held in November. Its name refers to the ages of seven, five, and three, when parents take their children to a shrine to pray for a long and healthy life.
At both celebrations, participants wear precious furisode kimonos. Van Duyvendijk does not photograph these ceremonies as exotic spectacles, but as expressions of the way a community shows that it sees and recognizes its members.
In Japan, a person standing on the threshold of a new phase of life is celebrated and acknowledged by their entire community.
In our society, such transitions usually go unnoticed, including here, where someone transitions from medical student to doctor in one day.
Recognition does not have to be grand to leave a lasting impression.
Anyone crossing a threshold today deserves to have someone acknowledge it.
About the work
Marco van Duyvendijk (1974) made these portraits during two Japanese ceremonies that celebrate important transitions in children's lives.
The portrait of the young lady in the snow shows Sejin no Hi, the Japanese age of consent on which twenty-year-olds are honored with a ceremony because they are adults. The young women wear a beautiful furisode kimono.
The two portraits of the little girls were made during Shichi Go San, an ancient festival where parents go to a Shinto temple with children. Here small sacrifices are made and the wish is expressed that the children will have a long, healthy and happy life.
Color photos, 99 x 120, 2020