1975-2001: Dutch History Photo Commissions > Celine M. van Balen
![Portret van Josephine Zwaan, 1997-1999, fotograaf Van Balen Portret van Josephine Zwaan, 1997-1999, fotograaf Van Balen](/nl/cms/cachedimage?f=RIJK02_balen_0.jpg)
Amsterdam, 1965
At twenty-five, after a number of photography courses, she started to photograph tramps and squatters in Amsterdam with a 35-mm camera. She has, in her own words, “a fascination for people who are often given the cold shoulder, who do not lead a socially accepted life.
From 1995 until 1997 she studied at the Rietveld Academy. There she started to photograph with a 4 x 5 technical camera. Her work is situated on the boundaries between documentary and autonomous photography and consists often of frame-filling portraits.
Since 1999/2000 her work is regularly on show in galeries and museums.