No need to take your own awkward bathing suit selfie, this babe's got your back.

Rineke was born the Netherlands, in Sittard to be precise, which is not close to Amsterdam at all. It's close to the country's only mountain ridge though. Honestly, it’s only one mountain. I wouldn’t really call it a mountain either. Anyway, before becoming one of the most famous photographers EVER, Rineke studied to become an arts and crafts teacher. Boooring! It's a good thing she borrowed a friend's camera at the age of 19 and fell in love instantly. With photography that is, not the friend as far as I know.

She went on to study photography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. The name Rietveld might ring a bell. Together with Piet Mondrian, he was godfather of the Dutch de Stijl movement and well known for his wacky lego-like chairs. Which has nothing to do with Rineke Dijkstra. After graduating in the late 1980s, she photographed people in clubs for magazines and shot boring corporate portraits in the side. 

It took breaking her hip in 1990 to unlock her big breakthrough. Legend has it that her car was struck by a bicycle and that’s why she broke her hip. Wait, what? I know dutchies are indestructible and all, cycling without helmets, transporting 3 kids and groceries all while making a phone call… but wrecking a car and breaking someone's hip with a bike? I don't know about that. Please correct me if I’m wrong, Rineke. The story about a car hitting her bicycle seems more plausible. Anyways, during her rehabilitation Rineke shot a self portrait that redirected and sparked her career. 

Rineke has always been obsessed with observing people, in a non-creepy way of course. Still, being somewhat of a creepoid is essential to being a good photographer. Teen bathers, baby mommas in all their glory minutes after giving birth, and a random French Foreign Legionnaire. What do they have in common? They’re all ordinary people. But to Rineke these people looked special. That basically means we’re all special, right? Guggenheim’s director Richard Armstrong once said: “Rineke Dijkstra is an artist with very few peers,” which makes her a little bit more special than everyone else.