Celine van Balen

These portraits by Celine van Balen depict seven-year-old children. It is an age at which curiosity grows and the world gradually becomes larger. As young employees at LUMC, we recognize ourselves in this stage of life. We too are at the beginning of a journey of development, where learning, exploring, and growing are central. This portrait reminds us that development is not only about acquiring knowledge, but also about discovering who you are, just a s these children will do. The photographs invite us to reflect on a question that resonates with many young professionals: who am I today, and who do I want to be tomorrow?

We too are at the beginning of a journey of development, where learning, exploring, and growing are central. The photographs invite us to reflect on a question that resonates with many young professionals: who am I today, and who do I want to be tomorrow?

Céline van Balen (1965–2023) created these portraits between 1997 and 1999 for Document Nederland, the Rijksmuseum’s annual photography commission in collaboration with NRC Handelsblad. She portrayed twenty-eight seven-year-old children from a wide range of social and cultural backgrounds.

Van Balen worked with a camera mounted on a tripod, which encouraged slow observation and deliberate photography. The children do not smile and do not speak. They stand facing the camera, in the same light and against the same background, with the seriousness and dignity of a classical painted portrait. It is precisely this uniform framework that reveals how different these children are, while at the same time presenting them as equals.

Van Balen herself described it this way: seven-year-old children stand on the threshold of the real world; they are already attending primary school, yet preschool is still close behind them. The Rijksmuseum acquired the series in 1999.

A seven-year-old child, looking straight into the lens, without a smile for the photographer.

At this age, everything is still possible. What happens next depends on who notices this child, believes in them, and encourages them.

Which of these children will be standing in our lecture hall twenty years from now?

We would rather not leave that question to chance.