The Hasselblad Foundation has named Dutch photographer Rineke Dijkstra as the winner of this year’s International Award in Photography.

The award, considered to be one of the most important in photography, is granted to ‘a photographer recognised for major achievements’.

‘Rineke Dijkstra is one of the most significant contemporary artists working in photographic portraiture,’ the judging panel said. ‘Her large-scale photographs focus on the thematics of identity, typically capturing her subjects at moments of transition or vulnerability.

Her images recall 17th century Dutch portraiture, ‘offering intimate portrayals of her sitters whilst also suggesting the situated aspects of their being’, the panel said.

Dijkstra was was born in 1959 in Sittard, the Netherlands. She lives and works in Amsterdam and studied at the Gerrit Rietveld art school.

View some of her portraits

Photograph of Rineke Dijkstra by Daphne Channa Horn via Wikimedia Commons