Youthquake, The Desire for Eternal Youth
Kunsthal Rotterdam, 2021

My Dear Joyce (series) 2017

Harmen Meinsma is currently based in Rotterdam but grew up with his grandmother in Friesland. In his teenage years, Meinsma started photographing himself and his friends in his grandmother’s attic. Intuitively he focussed on bringing to life his personal fantasies full of unconventional beauty, a theme that still characterises his visual language. Through the series My Dear Joyce, Meinsma wants to give his muse Joyce, who sometimes feels like a social outcast, “the feeling that she’s alive again and is the most important creature on earth”. Meinsma’s preference for older female models can be traced back to the overwhelming love of his grandmother. His work is at odds with social stereotypes surrounding ageing and presents youth as an ageless phenomenon.

Courtesy of Harmen Meinsma

Kunsthal Rotterdam 2021 | Harmen Meinsma