‘YAËL TEMMINCK (ANTHOLOGY)’: PORTRAITS AS A CULTURAL ARCHIVE
words and interview by ANOUK WOUDT
There is something inherently intimate about a portrait. As you gaze at its subject, it’s a unique opportunity to lock eyes with a stranger; an unveiling of their disposition, their energy, their emotion all in a single fleeting moment, chronicled for an eternity.
Dutch photographer Yaël Temminck’s self-titled anthology captures this delicate exchange through a gallery of over 120 faces, gathered over the course of more than a decade of photography work. Focusing mainly on artists across different mediums, his work transfers their presence onto the page, becoming a visual archive of a living cultural landscape – spanning from legendary cultural figures to emerging voices shaping the underground today.
POL, 2025 ©Yaël Temminck
As Temminck’s first monograph, the 196-page book was published in a limited first edition of 200 hand-numbered copies, exuding the same raw intimacy from the outside in. His work primarily features artists, capturing up-close portraits of subjects like legendary subcultural photographer Nan Goldin, Sonic Youth bassist and frontwoman Kim Gordon, and Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto, alongside a new generation of cultural voices, including Xaviersobased, Sky Ferreira, Julian Casablancas, Osamason and The Hellp. Through Yaël’s vision, we are taken through the entire creative landscape, melting cross-sections and thus highlighting their shared artistry and humanity.
left to right: NAN GOLDIN, 2023 ©Yaël Temminck, KIM GORDON, 2022 ©Yaël Temminck, THE HELLP, 2025 ©Yaël Temminck, XAVIERSOBASED, 2025 ©Yaël Temminck
Drawn in by what his subjects do or create, a connection beyond appearance is what truly urges Yaël to take a photograph. Beyond people who’ve carved their own space in their designated creative industry, he also finds resonance in strangers he passes on the street, saying, “It’s about a connection and sharing energy.” This idea extends itself to cultural figures as well, who become a part of Temminck’s vision outside of their reputation — each subject is pictured as inescapably human, whether they are instantly recognisable or entirely unknown.
As a long-time admirer of Peter Hujar’s work, Temminck’s photography seeks to capture the core of its subject, veiled in the same black-and-white austerity. Besides influences from photography, Yaël’s vision also draws upon his own personal thoughts and how that interacts with the surrounding world, creating a fusion between the person behind and in front of the camera.
The decision to work exclusively in black-and-white further deepens this atmosphere. “I like limitations, rules,” he says, “ it gives me more freedom and guidance.” Besides acting as a visual restraint, removing colour also allows the image to exist outside of a specific moment, creating timeless imagery that swells with a sense of mystery.
JOHN CALE, 2018 ©Yaël Temminck, OSAMASON, 2025 ©Yaël Temminck
As Temminck looks back at his work over the years, he notes the most striking difference was not in his portraits but within himself. Through an evolving constellation of self-portraits, we see fleeting glimpses of Temminck as he grows from his younger self into the present day.
Alongside the shifts in his own energy comes a slow-building refinement of his stylistic tone. Spanning photographs taken by his 17-year-old self, we can see a gradual maturation as Temminck begins to find himself and his personal photographic vision. Earlier images cling to grain, flash and a more daring immediacy before settling into the classic square format that has become synonymous with his practice— a clear ode to the traditions of portraiture framed by Robert Mapplethorpe, Diane Arbus and, perhaps most significantly, Peter Hujar.
SELF PORTRAIT, 2022 ©Yaël Temminck, SELF PORTRAIT, 2025 ©Yaël Temminck
“Yaël’s approach to photographing his subjects feels less like portraiture and more like possession,” writes James McGovern. “He holds something obscure and delicate that cannot be taught — an innate ability to capture the world and its inhabitants in their purest, in the present moment.” It is this ability to hold onto fleeting states that gives the work its emotional weight.
More than a collection of portraits, Yaël Temminck (Anthology) is a study of connection: between artist and subject, past and present, image and memory. It serves as a reminder of a portrait’s purpose, capturing the innermost disposition of its subjects at their most natural, stripped-back form.
SELF PORTRAIT, 2025 ©Yaël Temminck
