About

Nanouk Prins

Nanouk Prins is an Amsterdam based photographer. In June 2021 she graduated with honors at the Photo Academy in Amsterdam. Nanouk recently published a photobook called ‘Empty Forest’.

Artist Statement

Prins is a photographer whose work aims to pinpoint the fulcrum between opposites: present and past, reality and illusion. She wants to create an alternate world that viewers can step into, like the experience of reading a captivating novel and feeling transported into another realm.

There is a sense of longing in her photographs: between what is and what could be, or what has been but has slipped away. Her work evokes a place where time seems to have suddenly stopped, a moment that will be gone forever once the movement starts again. This world doesn’t belong to anyone, yet everyone can see their own contrasting feelings--grief and joy, loss and hope--reflected in it.

The world that Prins creates can only exist through photographs. While painting retains the physical presence of the artist, her camera allows her to keep some distance and still harness the flickering of light and shadow.

The theme of transitions occurs in much of her work: stairs can represent movement toward or away from something. Twilight is also a transition between day and night, light and dark. We often think of transitions as in between moments to endure while we look to the future or reminisce about the past. The photographs of Prins invite viewers to inhabit that state of flux and to accept it not as something fleeting, but as a constant.

Publications / Nominations / Exhibitions

2022 Sep. Workshop Antoine d'Agata, with pop-up exhibition at la Croisière, Arles

2022 Sep. Unseen Amsterdam, 'Empty Forest' at Unseen Book Market

2022 July Shortlisted for Stories 2022, by Photo Collective Australia

2022 June Photobook 'Empty Forest' finalist at Athens Photo Festival

2022 May Selected for the Singapore International Photography Festival 2022

2022 Mar. 'Empty Forest' shortlisted for Belfast Photo Festival

2022 Feb. Groep Exhibition, LoosenArt Gallery, Rome

2021 Dec. Tokyo International Photography Awards, Silver with 'Empty Forest'

2021 Nov. GUP, New Dutch Photography Talent 2022

2021 Oct. Solo Exhibition, ATELIER K84, Amsterdam

2021 Oct. Portfolio Publication, PHOTO31

2021 Sep. Unseen Book Market, Self Publishers United, Unseen Amsterdam

2021 Sep. Group Exhibition, BINNENST, Amsterdam

2021 Aug. Online Publication, PHOTO-LETTER, Berlin

2021 Jun. Publication Photobook, EMPTY FOREST

2021 Jun. Group Exhibition, BEELD, Loods 6, Amsterdam

2021 May FotoNostrum Portrait Awards, Jury's Special Selection

2021 Apr. Online Exhibition, ARTDOC Narrative Portraits

2020 Sep. Group Exhibition, FRESH EYES PHOTO FAIR, Gashouder, Amsterdam