ELIZABETH ALDERLIESTEN 
Dordrecht (NL), 1972

Elizabeth Alderliesten is a Dutch artist and her main medium is analog photography. She currently lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium.

FRESH EYES Photo selected her as one of the 100 greatest emerging photography talents in Europe of 2020, she is featured on one of the four covers of the yearbook. She is also included in GUP New Photo Talent yearbook 2020. 

She attends the year-long Photobook Workshop with Nearest Truth last year. In 2022 she participated in a workshop with Dirk Braeckman and Brad Feuerhelm in Athens. From 2020 until 2022 she attended Le Masterklass with Klavdij Sluban in Paris. In 2019 she followed an Masterclass with Machiel Botman in Amsterdam. She graduated from the Fotoacademie in Amsterdam in 2019. 

ARTIST STATEMENT

Her work begins with analog photography, but that is only the point of departure. For her, photography is not just a medium; it is a way to understand the world and find her place within it. Her images are not final captures but rather starting points, stories that continue to unfold, much like life itself.

She has always been fascinated by the self, what it means to be and to feel. Growing up with ADHD, which was only identified later in adulthood, has played a significant role in shaping her perspective on the world. It has given her thoughts a sense of speed and intensity and pushed her into a constant search for meaning. The suppression of her natural impulses to meet social expectations created a tension between conformity and authenticity. This tension has provided her with a deeper understanding of duality and transformation, themes that permeate her work. Her images reflect not only this inner struggle but also the strength and beauty of shedding masks and embracing vulnerability.

Her work often explores dualities: light and dark, reality and fiction, instinct and control. Inspired by Clarissa Pinkola Estés's Women Who Run With the Wolves, she reflects on the innate instinctive nature of women, often suppressed by societal expectations. This tension fascinates her. How does one remain true to their authentic self while adapting to the world around them. Her photographs symbolize that struggle and the ongoing metamorphosis of identity.

Analog photography provides her with a foundation. It slows her down and brings her back to the physical and tangible. It begins with capturing a moment on film and ends in transformation, most of the time in the darkroom, sometimes through digital manipulation. However, she doesn’t stop there. In the darkroom and through digital techniques, she further transforms her images. By editing her negatives, she creates new visuals, and what was once reality becomes an alternate reality. Her images exist at the intersection of magic and realism, a liminal space where nothing is fixed, and anything seems possible.

She plays with texture, light, and shadow to capture emotions that are difficult to articulate with words. Her work invites viewers to pause, observe, and find their own interpretations. For her, the process is just as important as the final result. She views her work as a journey, a quest for the invisible.