Renate Ariadne van der Togt’s Portraits Are Somewhat Surreal

There’s something wonderfully eerie in Renate Ariadne van der Togt’s portraits. With a distinct color palette, her subjects are captured from irregular angels that make their human bodies seem almost alien.

“I’m incredibly fascinated by creating dream within reality,” van der Togt admitted in an interview with i-D Magazine. “I’ve always been able to remember my dreams in the finest detail and it affects the way I look at my surroundings. In my attempts to capture a feeling of magic or surreal in reality, I draw inspiration from magical realist art and film.”

“My earliest memory of making images was the webcam,” she went on to say. “I must have been around 11 years old when I started to make self-portraits with that bulky Logitech bulb on top of my parents PC in the living room. It was the first time I realized that a photograph isn’t a perfect document of reality — it’s rather elements of reality reconstructed to show whatever the maker desires.”

Her photographs have since gained a much larger audience, with features in notable publications like Metal Magazine, Schon! Magazine and Grit Magazine. She has also showcased her art in exhibitions in New York, Milan, and Amsterdam.

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Pine still in Kennemerduinen. 2019

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