Astrid Verhoef Dutch, b. 1973

Astrid Verhoef's photographic practice explores the shifting relationship between human presence and the natural environment. Working through solitary journeys and self-timed photographic staging, she places herself within austere mineral and volcanic landscapes, using the body and everyday objects as symbolic elements. Her carefully constructed images move between stillness and surrealism, examining belonging, disconnection and our increasingly precarious relationship with the natural world.

Her sequential black-and-white series form chapters within an ongoing investigation. In Inscapes (2015-2019), a recurring figure appears within vast landscapes, quietly negotiating questions of identity, displacement and belonging. Human//Nature (2020-2024) moves toward greater abstraction and anonymity: the human figure recedes, becoming a metaphorical element within the landscape and emphasizing the tension between human presence and environment.

In Osmosis (2024-), Verhoef shifts from opposition toward interdependence. The human becomes a fleeting presence within the natural world, while objects such as rope, clouds and monumental eggs operate as conduits for ideas of anchoring, detachment, transformation and renewal. Rather than seeking resolution between apparent opposites, the work considers connection as a fragile and temporary exchange.

Working on location remains fundamental to Verhoef's practice. In an era increasingly shaped by AI-generated imagery, the physical and sensory experience of making the photograph becomes inseparable from the work itself. Her occasional collages are constructed exclusively from photographs made on location, preserving the direct relationship between artist, landscape and image.

Verhoef's work has been exhibited internationally in New York, Sydney, Paris, Milan, Tokyo and Berlin, among other cities, and is held in the collection of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Her work has received recognition from the Prix de la Photographie Paris, International Photography Awards, Salon des Beaux-Arts Paris and New York Photo Festival, and has been published internationally.