Astrid Ufkes

Astrid Ufkes was born in 1958 in Apeldoorn. She studied at art academy, completed photography school, and trained as an interior designer. Her career as a photographic artist began in 2013, following a difficult period when both she and her husband lost their jobs. A recently completed photography course and a visit to an exhibition by photographer Ruud van Empel in Antwerp became her springboard into working with photography as a means of processing this transition and exploring what it meant to be an artist.

The series Me Myself and My World (2013–2015) documents this emotional journey through black and white photographs. The work features abstract landscapes and forms with occasional recognizable shapes, often containing two silhouettes representing searching figures. As her circumstances stabilized, this evolved into the series You Me and Our World – Eyes (2015–2017), which centers on photographed eyes of people she knows, integrated into larger compositions that blend portraiture with dreamlike landscapes. She collaborated with writer Adam van Donk on a book featuring thirteen works from the Eyes series, each accompanied by his written response.

Her most recent series, You Me and Our World – Magical Landscapes, marks a shift toward color and reflects her current chapter. Travel and engagement with new cultures have shaped her work, which explores freedom, identity, and the strength of individual elements. Her compositions often contain contrasts—tension between protection and openness, clarity and mystery—that create what she describes as alienation and magic. Though intuitive in her selections, each element she includes has been photographed by her. Two silhouettes remain present throughout her work, now serving as her signature rather than as searching figures.