Gon Buurman

This collection of photographs by Gon Buurman features portraits of epic, superemancipated heroines--in other words, common, everyday women, girls and mothers-to-be. Gay, straight, old, young, silly, smart, able, disabled, eccentric and just plain cool, the women gathered here represent the complete range of Buurman's encounters with women. In her introduction, Anja Meulenbelt writes, "The woman in that photo was me, and also the woman I wanted to be. I learned later that many of the women Gon has photographed have felt exactly the same way: 'Yes, that's who I am and who I want to be.' In these seemingly simple portraits--of women who are posing or whom the camera has caught while they're getting dressed for their wedding, putting on their makeup, stepping out of a swimming pool or sitting in the bath--something in those portraits captures an essence. It's a different image from the women we've seen in films and ladies' magazines. Perhaps that makes it a bit feminist after all."