©Micky Hoogendijk, Through a Glass Darkly

One of the best parts of my recent experience exhibiting with Verve Gallery in Santa Fe was spending time with the other two artists in the exhibition, Maggie Taylor, and Micky Hoogendijk. Maggie is a familiar name in the photo world, creating magically constructed images, and Micky is a new visual voice, creating unusual portraiture. Micky’s layered portraits are a nod to the expansiveness of the human psyche, reflecting that we each hold mysteries beyond what the eye can see. On April 13, she opens an exhibition at Voila in Los Angeles and from April 13 -17, she will also be exhibiting work at A.I.P.A.D. with the Verve Gallery.

©Micky Hoogendijk, Ode to Damien

Portraits in Transition

The starting point of my work is an encounter, dream or object that culminates in an explosion of ideas. On set, I allow my model’s instinct and personality to melt together with my camera and drive my creative inspiration.

I coax trust, contact and vulnerability from my subjects in order to produce an image from which the viewer can then create his own world. Recurring themes are religion, society and mythology; each work is intensely personal and takes both me and my subject on a journey that provokes fundamental questions about life and our existence.

©Micky Hoogendijk, The King and I

Art has always been part of my life. I grew up in an international art scene in Europe, I spent years in front of the camera as an actress and model.

Then my life’s work changed when my late mother’s last gift, a camera, inspired me and became the drive behind the creation of new life.

I want my art to be more than photographs. I seek out innovative printing technologies to create images with depth and richness, so they appear almost three-dimensional.

©Micky Hoogendijk, Gold

Born in Amsterdam July 8, 1970, Hoogendijk grew up immersed in an international environment of art; surrounded by artists, art dealers, theater makers, actors, and dancers. Her grandfather, Dirk Hoogendijk, was one the most successful art dealers in The Netherlands in the last century. He used his perceptive eye to enrich many museums, including the Rijksmuseum, with the works of the Dutch Masters. As a young girl, Hoogendijk also spent many hours in the painting workshop of her father, the painter Roelof Frankot, who began as a photographer before moving his focus to abstract art.

©Micky Hoogendijk, Memories

As a young adult in the 90s, a time when postmodernism was just revealing itself, Hoogendijk was in the center of the Amsterdam and International art scene as both the wife and business partner of famous postmodern artist Rob Scholte. Only in her 20s, she ran the company Rob Scholte BV and was project manager of the prestigious and ambitious work Après nous le deluge, a wall and ceiling painting of 1,200 square meters in Nagasaki, Japan.

Later, Hoogendijk turned her attention further to business and entertainment and, as creative director of Supperclub, was actively involved in the international expansion of that renowned brand.

In her versatile career, you will also find Hoogendijk in front of the camera. As a model, she posed for important Dutch designers like Mart Visser; as an actor, she appeared in European and US films and TV series.

She played the role of Cleo de Wolf in the Dutch TV series Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden for two years, before leaving for Los Angeles to study method acting at the Academy of the master teacher Eric Morris. She worked alongside Kate Hudson (in Raising Helen) and Rutger Hauer, and she lent her appearance and behaviors as inspiration for Luger, the main character in the video game Killzone. All the while, she appeared in multiple Dutch programs and films and, in 2008, was awarded “Best Actress in a Feature Film” at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival for her role in Blind-spot.

©Micky Hoogendijk, Rainstick

In 2009, Hoogendijk received a last gift from her ailing mother: a professional still camera. The gift would change her career forever. Two months later, her mother passed away, and she moved to San Francisco, where she discovered the majestic lines and architecture of the city through the eye of the camera. By 2010, living and working again in Los Angeles, Hoogendijk discovered her gift for artistic portraits. In 2012, she moved to Austin, Texas, where she created her first body of work. By 2015, she returned to Los Angeles, where she continues her work as an artist.

Hoogendijk’s photographic work has appeared in art shows like Art Platform Los Angeles 2012, E- merge Art Fair in Washington DC, Contemporary Art Fair in Istanbul, and her work even went all the way to Tokyo, Japan. She has garnered both critical acclaim and commercial success and has signed with galleries in Amsterdam, Houston, Santa Fe, Mexico City and Los Angeles.

Nurtured by the life of the international art world and memories of the Old Dutch masters such as Vermeer and Rembrandt, Hoogendijk takes the beholder on a journey into her universe: a dynamic and inspiring realm where visual arts, technology, and theater melt together into photography.

©Micky Hoogendijk

Hoogendijkʼs work is characterized by sharp, iconic images that deeply touch your soul. With her camera, she enchants with lighting, and her images often contain religious and mythical themes as well as daily scenes. At the core of her work lies a quest for the majesty of vulnerability–an image without embellishment that captures the powerful essence of naked emotion. This theme is prominent in her recent portrait series Regal of 2012.

©Micky Hoogendijk, Moonlight

©Micky Hoogendijk, Transition

Hoogendijk feels just as much at home behind the camera as in front of the camera. Drawing from her own experience, she understands and feels the emotion of her subjects and coaxes them to reveal all to her lens. And the camera connects her to her beloved mother and her own history. As a photographer and artist she has come full circle. Raised in a world of art, everything falls into place in her work as a photographer. Micky lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.