Scarlett Hooft Graafland

Born in 1973, Dutch, works and lives in Amsterdam (NL)

About the Artist

Scarlett Hooft Graafland is a visual artist working at the intersection of photography, performance, and sculpture. Trained at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem, and Parsons School of Design in New York.

She is internationally recognized for her large-format analogue photographs staged in remote landscapes such as the salt flats of Bolivia, the deserts of Yemen, and the Arctic. Her works, free of digital manipulation, capture ephemeral in-situ interventions that merge humor, surrealism, and poetry while engaging with local communities and traditions.

Scarlett Hooft Graafland’s oeuvre has been widely exhibited, including at Fotografiska (Stockholm), the Photo Museum Hanni (Seoul), Huis Marseille Museum of Photography (Amsterdam), MOCCA - the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (Toronto), and MAC Museum - the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Lima). Her artist books include Discovery (2008), Soft Horizons (2011), and Unlikely Landscape(2014).

A distinctive aspect of her practice is her reliance on analogue photography and the absence of digital manipulation. Each image is the outcome of an ephemeral performance in situ, captured in a single shot. This methodology underscores her respect for the authenticity of the moment, while foregrounding the fragility and impermanence of both the natural world and human intervention.

At the core of Hooft Graafland’s work lies a profound engagement with slowness and presence. Her artistic process requires patience: travelling to remote areas, collaborating with local communities, and waiting for the precise alignment of light, space, and action. In an era saturated with instantaneous images, her photographs invite viewers to pause, contemplate, and rediscover the wonder embedded in the visible world.