Isa de Jong - “I Am Growing Today”
“I Am Growing Today” is a two-years project about young women and the struggles of coming of age. It offers an intimate road into the lives of twenty different girls in the age of twenty. This project is created by photographer Isa de Jong.
Their stories, handwritten and real, reveal overall clumsiness, confusion and excitement of this age. They manifest the emotional states, the uncertainty that come together with entering the adulthood. This trip shows how much these young women learnt and grew up during this time.
Who is Isa de Jong
Isa de Jong – a photographer and an illustrator. In her works, she sees deeper than what is perceived by an average person. She collaborates with strangers on in-depth projects. Last year she has graduated from AKV|St. Joost in Breda.
Check her other works on https://www.isadejong.com/
How did it started?
In the middle of XX century, Johan van der Keuken, a Dutch photographer, created a book “Wij zijn 17” – “We are 17”. It contains photos of boys and girls in their seventeens. The work put the age of seventeen on the map. Johan took the photos of the teens in their natural surroundings – at home, by the window, or in their attic room.
The book was a huge inspiration for Isa. Through The Mix series she creates her project. As Johan was 17 when he created his book, Isa is 20. That is why the young women on her photos are also twenty.
It all has started two years ago, in 2018. For two years she was observing twenty different twenty-year-old girls in their journey from childhood to adulthood. The project focuses on their personal stories, dreams and personalities. The girls were very aware of themselves and of the image they were portraying into the world. This project is a very personal journey of these twenty young women.
Isa and the girls started collaboration in 2018 in “20X20BY20” and continued learning from each other in “I am growing Today” together with The Mix.
It’s worth to mention that the girls were not specially selected or anything. Isa approached strangers in their everyday life, like in a supermarket, asking to take a photo of them. Surprisingly, they agreed. They agreed to show her their everyday life, their struggles, the personal and important belongings. It is what makes this project so real.
The Mix
The Mix is a series of new photo-commissions, exhibitions and publications. In each case, a Dutch photographer of today seeks inspiration in the work of a Dutch photographer of the past whose pictures can be found in a private or public collection.
The Mix is a fresh and surprising journey of discovery around the Netherlands of yesterday and today.
Two photographers,
one from the past,
one from the present…
Exhibition
The exhibition of the project was planned at Museum Tongerlohusy Roosendaal. However, due to COVID-19 measures, the museum had to be closed temporarily. That is why the exhibition was moved to railway station Roosendaal. The images can be found on the platforms and on the station concourse.
No need to book tickets, just visit railway station Roosendaal!
