Viviane Sassen

The community living there has no running water, electricity, roads or internet. Remote as the village may be, the influences of the modern world are clear to see, with villagers using mobile phones and plastic items. The series of photographs made by Sassen in Pikin Slee captures the beauty of everyday life. Although mostly shot in black and white, these abstract compositions feature the colourful flourishes that characterise her early work. The Pikin Slee series was added to the Rijksmuseum collection in 2013 to complement its existing collection of photographs taken in Suriname, which up to that point had been mostly historical in character.